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JUDAISM 


AT    THE 


WORLDS  PARLIAMENT  OF  RELIGIONS 


COMPRISING  THE  PAPERS  ON  JUDAISM  READ  AT  THE 

PARLIAMENT,   AT   THE   JEWISH    DENOMINATIONAL 

CONGRESS,  AND  AT  THE  JEWISH  PRESENTATION 


Published  by  tJte   Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations 


CINCINNATI 
ROBERT  CLARKE  &   CO 

1894 


Copyright,  1894, 
Bv  Robert  Clarke  &  Co. 


BP1 

INTRODUCTION. 


When  the  idea  of  holding  a  Parliament  of  all  Religions  in  connection 
with  the  World's  Fair  of  Chicago  was  broached  there  was  no  denomi- 
nation that  hailed  it  with  greater  enthusiasm  than  the  Jewish.  The 
first  advocates  of  a  universal  religion  had  been  Israel's  prophets,  and 
this  movement  was  the  first  pronounced  step  to  be  taken  in  our  West- 
ern World  toward  giving  active  expression  to  the  glorious  hope  of  the 
unitiue  of  all  men  in  the  name  of  the  one  God.  Individual  voices  in 
the  various  Jewish  pulpits  throughout  the  land  were  raised  in  joy  and 
gratitude.  The  first  oflftcial  action,  however,  in  the  matter  was  taken  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis  held  in  New 
York  City,  July  6-10,  1892,  when  the  committee  to  whom  had  been 
referred  the  suggestions  in  the  annual  message  of  the  President  of  the 
Conference  included  in  their  report  the  following  paragraph  : 

"  We  recommend,  in  reference  to  the  Religious  Congress  of  the 
Columbian  Exposition,  that  after  the  matter  has  been  given  mature 
deliberation  at  the  present  session  of  the  Conference,  the  Executive 
Committee  of  this  Central  Conference  be  given  full  power  to  act  in  con- 
junction Avith  the  committee  already  appointed  by  the  Columbian  Com- 
missioners." 

A  number  of  suggestions  w-ere  made  as  to  what  participation 
Judaism  should  take  in  the  Congress,  and  the  matter  was  disposed  of 
by  a  resolution  to  the  effect  "  that  all  matters  concerning  the  World's 
Fair  be  referred  to  the  Executive  Committee,  that  all  recommendations 
that  the  Executive  Committee  will  have  to  make  and  all  the  reports 
of  their  transactions  regarding  the  World's  Fair  be  brought  to  the 
notice  of  a  special  session^of  the  Conference  to  be  held  in  Washing- 
ton next  December,  in  order  to  act  in  conjunction  with  the  Council  of 
the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations." 

At  the  special  session  of  the  Conference  held  in  Washington  on 
the  fifth  of  the  following  December,  it  was  resolved  to  address  a  com- 
munication to  the  Council  of  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congre- 
gations which  was  to  convene  on  the  next  day  asking  the  co-operation 
and  support  of  the  Union  in  the  execution  of  the  idea  of  the  repre- 
sentation of  Judaism  at  the  Parliament. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  this  communication  by  the  Council  it  was  re- 
ferred   to   a   Committee   of  Five    consisting  of  Messrs.   B.   Bettman, 

(iii) 


917816 


IV  INTRODUCTION. 

Julius  Freiberg,  Simou  Wolf,  and  Revs.  Dr.  Joseph  Silverman  and 
Louis  Grossman.  This  committee  submitted  the  following  report 
which  was  unanimously  adopted  : 

'To  the  Council  of  the  Union  of  Avierican  Hebrew  Congregations: 

Gentlemen: — Your  Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  com- 
munication from  the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  peti- 
tioning this  Council  to  co-operate  with  it  in  a  proper  presentation  of 
Judaism  at  the  Congress  of  Religions  which  will  be  held  in  Chicago, 
August,  1893,  beg  leave  to  submit  the  following : 

Inasmuch  as  all  the  religions  of  the  world  will  be  represented  at 
the  said  Congress  of  Religions,  and  the  Central  Conference  of  Amer- 
ican Rabbis  has  taken  the  initiative  for  a  proposed  representation  of 
Judaism  in  it, 

The  subjects  to  be  treated  as  follows  : 

I.  Historical — 

(a)  Subdivided  into  Biblical,  Mediaeval,  and  Modern. 

(&)  The  history  of  Jewish  beliefs  and  the  customs  in  the  various 
lands  and  times. 

(c)  The  history  of  the  domestic  and  inner  social  life  of  the  Jews 
in  the  various  periods. 

((/}  A  history  of  the  education  of  the  Jewish  people,  public  and 
private. 

II.  Ethical — 

(a)  Biblical  ethics  from  the  historical  standpoint. 
(6)  Talmudical  ethics  based  upon  and  to  begin  with  the  Hellen- 
istic literature. 

(c)  Ethics  of  the  medireval  Rabbis  down  to  our  own  time. 

III.  Polemics  and  Apologetics — 

That  is,  the  relation  of  the  Jews  to  Heathenism,  Christianity,  and 
Islam. 

IV.  Statistical — 

(a)  An  estimate  of  the  present  statistics. 
(6)  European  statistics. 

(c)  American  Jewish  statistics. 

(d)  Eastern  Jewish  statistics. 

V.  Arcilkological — 

Religious  and  national  Ixith  as  to  results  and  desiderata. 

These  various  to|)ics  will  be  assigned  to  well-known  scholars 
who  have  made  these  branches  their  special  study  and  they  shall  be 
requested  to  participate  in  person,  or  if  that  be  impossible,  by  literary 
contribuiioiis.       Furtlici  nidrc.    we    recommend    that    the    Conference 


INTRODUCTION.  V 

should  tender  a  special  invitation  to  representative  men  and  women 
to  take  part.     Furthermore  : 

Whereas,  The  anti-Semitic  agitation,  undeterred  by  the  verdict 
of  the  enlightened,  still  continues  its  unjust  liostility  in  many  lauds, 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  besides  the  discussion  of  the  topics  recommended, 
we  solicit  the  co-operation  of  all  American  Jews  in  sympathy  with 
the  cause,  both  individuals  as  well  as  societies,  orders,  and  congrega- 
tions to  render  the  participation  of  the  Jews  in  the  Religious  Con- 
gress of  the  Columbian  World's  Exposition  a  matter  of  international 
importance,  to  help  to  state  clearly  and  emphatically  the  great  aim 
and  the  objects  of  Judaism  before  the  entire  world  and  to  substan- 
tially refute  all  the  slanderous  charges  made  against  it  througli  the 
successive  ages  by  its  declared  foes;  be  it  also 

Resolved,  That  men  of  renowned,  Avorld-wide  scholarship  and  im- 
partiality of  the  Christian  denomination  and  Jewish  scholars  of  note 
be  requested  and  authorized,  at  the  expense  of  the  American  Jews, 
to  write  and  publish  exhaustive  treatises  on  the  anti-Semitic  charges, 
in  particular  in  regard  to  the  blood  accusations,  which  fill  so  dark  a 
chapter  in  Jewi.sh  and  Christian  history,  stating  the  facts  and  giving 
the  result  of  their  examination  in  decisive  and  clear  terms.  Further- 
more, be  it 

Resolved,  That  these  men  be  invited  to  come  and  to  review  pub- 
licly these  charges  before  the  enlightened  representatives  of  the  great 
religions  of  the  world,  in  order  to  elicit  the  approval  and  assent  of  the 
world  and  silence  slander  in  the  name  of  huraauitv  forever,  at  least 
within  the  pale  of  civilization. 

In  all  of  which  the  Council  fully  concurs  and  heartily  indorses 
the  proposed  plan. 

We  recommend  that  this  Council  appoint  a  committee  of  eleven 
to  co-operate  with  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Conference,  and 
that  the  joint  Commission  be  intrusted  with  full  power  to  carry  out 
this  suggestion,  with  such  modification  as  they  may  see  fit  for  the 
proper  representation  of  Judaism  in  the  Congress,  and  that  it  shall 
convene  as  speedily  as  practicable,  and  furthermore,  that  the  Execu- 
tive Board  be  herewith  authorized  to  provide  such  financial  support  to 
the  Commission  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  execution  of  the  plan." 

The  suggestions  in  this  report  as  to  the  subjects  which  should  be 
treated  in  the  papers  to  be  read  were  adopted  by  the  committee  from 
the  communication  of  the  Conference.  At  the  New  York  meeting 
above  referred  to,  this  plan  had  been  presented. 


Vi  INTRODUCTION. 

In  accordance  with  this  resolntion,  the  President  of  the  Conucil, 
Mr.  Emmannel  Werthheinier,  appointed  the  coiumittee  of  eleven,  con- 
sisting of  the  following  gentlemen  : 

B.  Bettman,  Cincinnati,  O. 

Isidore  Bush,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Josiah  Cohen,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 

Solomon  Hirsch,  Portland,  Oregon. 

Adolph  Moses,  Chicago,  111. 

Simon  AV.  Rosendale,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Jacob  H.  Schiff,  New  York. 

Lewis  Seasongood,  Cincinnati,  O. 

Oscar  S.  Strauss,  New  York. 

Mayer  Sulzberger,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Simon  Wolf,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Julius  Freiberg,  Cincinnati,  O.,  President  of  (lie  U)iion  of  A. 
H.  C,  ex-ojficio. 

On  March  26,  1893,  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Commission,  consisting 
of  this  Committee  of  the  Union ,  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Central 
Conference,  the  local  committee  of  Chicago,  and  representatives  of 
the  Congress  of  Jewish  women,  was  held  in  the  parlors  of  the  Audito- 
rium Hotel,  and  on  the  succeeding  days  in  the  vestry-rooms  of  the 
Anshe  Maariv  Congregation.  An  organization  of  all  these  bodies 
was  effected.  Mr.  B.  Bettman  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  meeting 
and  Kabbi  Joseph  Stolz,  secretary. 

The  joint  committee  resolved  to  spread  broadcast  the  following 
preliminary  address,  which  states  briefly  and  clearly  the  reasons  why 
Judaism  should  be  represented  at  the  Parliament : 

"  In  accordance  with  the  authority  vested  in  us  by  the  World's 
Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition,  we,  the  un- 
dersigned, rejirosenting  the  Union  of  American  Helu-ew  Congregations, 
the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  and  the  Local  Committee 
on  a  Jewish  Church  Congress,  send  fraternal  greetings  to  the  Jews  and 
friends  of  the  Jews  of  all  countries. 

The  World's  Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position has  fornfallyand  officially  invited  the  professors  of  Judaism  to 
be  represented  in  the  Parliament  of  Religions  to  be  held  in  the  Me- 
morial Art  Palace  from  September  11th  to  September  28th,  and  it 
behooves  us  to  participate  in  this  Congress  of  all  living  historical  re- 
ligi(ms,  that  no  link  in  the  chain  be  missing,  and  the  evidence  be  as 
complete  as  possible,  that  however  manifold  our  titles  may  bo,  the  be- 
lief's, the  hopes,  the  aims  we  all   cheri>h    in    common   arc   luiicli   more 


INTRODUCTION.  Vll 

important  Jiiul  essential  than  a  long-standing  and  deep-rooted   intoler- 
ance has  led  mankind  to  believe. 

Another  reason  of  not  less  importance  urges  the  Jews  to  be  prop- 
erly represented  at  this  Congress.  Although  the  history  of  Judaism 
covers  a  period  of  more  than  three  thousand  years,  no  religion  has 
been  more  thoroughly  misunderstood  and  misinterpreted.  Misconcep- 
tions of  it  are  so  deeply  rooted  that  ours  is  still  the  humiliation  to  see 
the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  world  not  only  giving  credence  to 
beliefs  concerning  us  that  have  been  invented  by  fanaticism,  and  have 
not  the  slighest  historical  foundation,  but  even  persecuting  our  breth- 
ren upon  the  strength  of  them. 

Since  the  existence  of  our  religion,  no  such  opportunity  as  this 
has  ever  been  extended  to  the  Jew  to  set  himself  right  before  the 
whole  world.  It  would,  therefore,  be  criminal  negligence  did  we  not 
embrace  this  chance  to  proclaim  broadcast,  through  such  men  as  by 
their  learning,  their  ripeness  of  judgment,  their  character,  and  their 
works,  will  command  general  recognition  and  attention,  what  our  fun- 
damental doctrines,  hopes,  and  aims  have  ever  been,  what  are  the 
chief  spiritual  contributions  for  which  humanity  is  indebted  to  us, 
what  is  our  attitude  toward  other  religions,  and  in  what  respect  Juda- 
ism is  still  indispensable  to  the  highest  civilization. 

For  these  reasons,  we  beg  leave  to  invite  your  moral  support  and 
hearty  co-operation  in  this  representation  of  Judaism  for  which  the 
evenings  of  September  13th,  15th,  and  16th  have  been  assigned  to  us 
by  the  General  Committee. 

It  is  designed  by  the  Auxiliary  that  also  a  Denominational  Con- 
gress or  Conference  shall  be  held  in  Chicago  for  a  more  complete  and 
extended  presentation  and  discussion  of  such  theoretical  and  practical 
questions  as  concern  each  denomination  ;  and  we  herewith  extend  to 
you  a  hearty  invitation  to  attend  and  participate  in  the  sessions  of  our 
Denominational  Congress,  which  will  be  held  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis  during  the  week  begin- 
ning August  28th,  and  which  will  form  an  officially  recognized  part  of 
the  World's  Fair  Religious  Congresses. 

All  communications  may  be  addressed  to  Rabbi  Joseph  Stolz, 
Secretary  of  the  Joint  Committee,  412  Warren  Avenue,  Chicago, 
Illinois. 

Signed  by — 

B.  Bettmann,  Cincinnati,  President. 
Hon.  Jacob  H.  Schiff,  New  York,  Vice-President 
Adolph  Moses,  Chicago,  Vice-President. 
Julius  Freiberg,  Cincinnati,  Vice-President. 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

IsiDOR  Bash,  St.  Louis,  Vke-Preddent. 
Hon.  Solomon  Hirsch,  Portland,  Ore.,  Vice-President. 
Judge  Simon  W.  Kosendale,  Albauy,  N.  Y. 
Hon.  Oscar  S.  Strauss,  New  York. 
Hon.  Simon  Wolf,  Washington,  D.  C. 
JosiAH  Cohen,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
Mayer  Sulzberger,  Philadelphia. 
Gen.  Lewis  Seasongood,  Cincinnati. 
Rabbf  Isaac  ISI.  Wise,  Cincinnati. 
Rabbi  David  Philipson,  Cincinnati. 
Rabbi  Charles  Levi,  Cincinnati. 
Rabbi  Joseph  Silverman,  New  York. 
Rabbi  Tobias  Shanfarber,  Baltimore. 
Rabbi  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  Chicago. 
Rabbi  Isaac  S.  Moses,  Chicago. 
Rabbi  Joseph  Stolz,  Chicago,  Secretary. 
Joint^Commiitee  of  the  World's  Congress  Auxiliary  on  the 

Jewish  Denominational  Congress." 

Thejcommittee  appointed  by  the  chairman  to  prepare  the  program 
for  the  Denominational  Congress  and  the  Jewish  Presentation  at  the 
Parliament  submitted  a  report  which  was  substantially  carried  out. 

The  Denominational  Congress  convened  Sunday  afternoon,  August 
28,  in  the  Hall  of  Columbus,  and  continued  its  sessions  until  Wednes- 
day morning,  August  30th.  The  Jewish  Church  presentation  took 
place  on  the  evenings  of  the  13th  and  15th  during  the  sessions  of  the 
Parliament. 

Mr.  B.  Bettman,  the  chairman  of  the  joint  committee,  in  his 
official  report,  ])resented  to  the  executive  committee  of  the  Union,  at 
its  meeting  hold  in  Cincinnati,  December  10,  1893,  writes  of  the  pro- 
gram and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  carried  out: 

"This  plan  provided  for  a  presentation  of  the  cause  of  Judaism 
before  the  World's  Congress  of  Religions  and  for  papers  to  be  read 
before  the  Jewish  Denominational  Congress,  prepared  by  men  selected 
from  among  the  best  and  ripest  Jewish  scholars  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  results  have  exceeded  the  highest  expectations  of  the  warmest 
friends  of  the  movement.  Not  only  did  Judaism  for  the  first  time  in 
its  history  meet  the  other  Religions  of  the  World  as  an  acknowledged 
e(|ual  entitled  to  and  accorded  a  respectful  hearing,  but  the  brilliant 
]>resentation  of  its  cause  has  made  warm  friends  for  it  in  hitherto  hos- 
tile or  at  least  coldly  imiifierent  circles,  and  seed  has  been  sown  that 
will  undoubtedly  bring  forth  a  harvest  of  esteem  and  good  fellowsliip. 


INTKODUCTION.  IX 

lu  addition  its  own  champions  and  adhereuts  have  gained  in  confidence 
and  encouragement,  and  auothei-  great  cause  for  congratulation  is  in 
the  eminent  success  achieved  also  for  the  first  time  by  the  American 
Jewish  women  in  their  exceedingly  able  public  participation  in  the 
work  of  the  Congress,  which  has  resulted  in  conferring  great  honor 
upon  themselves  and  the  sacred  common  cause." 

At  this  same  meeting,  the  following  communication  addressed  by 
the  Eev.  Dr.  Isaac  M.  Wise  to  Mr.  B.  Bettman,  on  jSTovember  7,  1893, 
was  presented  : 

"  Herewith  I  have  the  honor  to  report  to  the  Commission  of  the 
U.  A.  H.  C,  over  which  you  preside,  that  the  members  of  the  Cen- 
tral Conference  of  American  Rabbis  and  others  associated  with  them 
have  done  their  duty  in  the  Congress  and  Parliament  of  all  Religions, 
and  have  done  it  well.  Judaism  has  been  represented  on  this  occasion 
fairly,  fully,  and  frankly  by  able  and  eloquent  champions,  although 
none  of  the  foreign  brethren  appeared.  Also  that  cruel  "  blood  ac- 
cusation "  was  emphatically  and  eftectually  refuted — I  dare  say  by  our 
influence — by  the  great  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Zaute  in  Greece,  whq 
declared  it  a  base  falsehood  in  Parliament.  In  the  same  manner  anti- 
Semitism  was  denounced  by  Archbishop  Ireland  and  others  in  both 
cases  much  better  than  we  could  have  done  it.  We  discussed  fully  all 
departments  of  Judaism,  theoretical  and  practical,  exactly  according 
to  plan  and  specification  indorsed  by  your  Commission  at  the  meeting 
in  Chicago. 

None  of  our  men  hitherto  asked  any  recompense,  traveling  ex- 
penses, any  thing  at  all,  and  no  foreigner  gave  us  the  honor,  conse- 
quently no  draft  on  the  $1,000  was  made  to  the  best  of  my  knowl- 
edge. 

Therefore,  I  ask  of  the  Commission  (1)  to  order  the  inclosed  bills 
of  the  Secretary  paid,  to  which  I  have  to  add  ^50  for  printing  done 
on  my  order  in  preparation  for  the  Congress  and  the  Parliament.  (2) 
The  balance  to  be  applied  in  the  publication  of  the  book  which  shall 
contain  (a)  all  transactions  in  connection  with  this  affair  ;  and  (b)  all 
papers  and  addresses  by  ovn-  people,  men  and  women  in  that  Con- 
gress and  Parliament,  together  with  those  of  the  two  archbishops  men- 
tioned. 

This  volume — I  judge  to  be  about  300  pages  octavo — to  be  dis- 
tributed thus:  One  volume  to  the  archives  of  the  Union,  the  College 
and  every  congregation  of  the  Union  A.  H.  C.  One  volume  to  each 
of  the  officers  connected  with  the  Congress  and  Parliament,  to  our 
writers  whose  presentation  is  in  the  volume,  and  to  every  member  of 
the   Central    Conference    of    American    Rabbis   together   about    300 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

volumes.  100  to  be  distributed  in  the  various  libraries  of  the  coun- 
try ;  100  among  the  leading  newspapers,  and  100  in  Europe,  together 
600  volumes.  No  less  than  1,500  to  be  printed,  and  the  balance  to  be 
sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  Union. 

This  publication  will  be  the  historical  monument  of  the  occasion, 
and  for  the  future  generations  of  American  Israelites,  to  tell  so  we 
were,  so  we  did,  and  so  we  stood  in  1893." 

A  committee,  consisting  of  Messrs.  B.  Bettman,  A.  A.  Kramer 
and  Alfred  Seasougood,  was  appointed  to  take  these  suggestions  into 
consideration,  with  power  to  act. 

It  is  due  to  the  generosity  of  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew 
Congregations,  through  its  Executive  Committee,  that  the  publica- 
tion of  this  volume  has  been  made  possible.  It  is  sent  forth  as  a  me- 
morial of  Judaism's  participation  in  the  greatest  religious  gathering 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  thanks  of  the  Jews  of  this  land 
are  due  to  tlie  public  spirit  of  the  officers  of  the  Union,  who  have 
placed  the  funds  for  the  publication  of  the  work  at  the  disposal  of 
, the  committee. 

There  have  been  gathered,  as  far  as  possible,  all  the  papers  that 
were  read  at  the  Parliament  proper,  the  Congress,  and  the  Presenta- 
tion. With  but  few  exceptions,  all  the  papers  read  are  given.  Where 
this  is  not  the  case,  the  committee,  although  making  every  eflTort  to 
obtain  the  paper,  did  not  succeed. 

It  had  also  been  intended  to, include  the  papers  read  at  the  Jewish 
Women's  Congress  in  this  volume,  but  the  committee,  much  to  its  re- 
gret, learns  that  it  has  been  anticipated  in  this  matter  by  the  Jewish 
Publication  Society  of  America,  which  has  made  all  arrangements  to 
issue  the  proceedings  of  the  Women's  Congress. 

A  number  of  the  pa[)ers  read  before  the  Parliament,  although  not 
appointed  by  the  joint  commission,  have  nevertheless  been  included, 
in  order  that  as  complete  an  account  as  possible  of  what  was  spoken 
1)V  the  Jews  on  Judaism  miirht  be  given. 

The  paper  of  Pi-ofessor  D.  G.  Lyon,  of  Harvard  University,  on 
"Jewish  Contributions  to  Civilization,"  has  been  included,  because  of 
its  bearing  on  the  subject. 

The  strong  words  of  the  Archbishop  of  Zante  on  the  blood-accu- 
sation, doubly  important  when  the  speaker  who  uttered  them  is  con- 
sidered, are  reproduced. 

The  remarks  of  Archbishop  John  Ireland  on  Anti-Semitism,  made 
:it  a  meeting  of  the  Jewish  Women's  Congress,  and  kindly  furnished 
i>y  their  author  for  publication   in   this  volume,  will  be  welcomed  as 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

the  expression  of  a  broad  and  liberal-minded  man  upon  a  movement 
which  calls  for  the  condemnation  of  all  friends  of  humanity. 

This  volume  is  sent  forth  with  the  prayer  that  it  may  serve  toward 
spreading  a  knowledge  of  the  past  achievements,  the  present  beliefs, 
and  the  future  hopes  of  Judaism.  These  hopes  center  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  ideal  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  the  acknowledgment 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  and  the  Brotherhood  of  jNIan.  It  was  a 
rabbi  who  suggested  the  verse  of  the  prophet  that  was  adopted  as  the 
motto  of  the  Parliament:  "Have  we  not  all  one  Father?  has  not  one 
God  created  us?"  May  God  speed  the  coming  of  the  time  when  the 
thought  implied  in  these  words  will  be  realized,  and,  the  world  over, 
the  high  hopes  aroused  by  the  Parliament  be  fulfilled. 


COiSTTEIN^TS. 


PAGES 

Introduction iii 

Opening  Session xix 


I.     THEOLOGY. 

1.  An  Introduction   to   the  Theology  of  Judaism,  by  Rev.  Dr. 

Isaac  M.  Wlse. 
A  Prolegomenon.  What  Theologj'  is.  The  Postulates  of  The- 
ology. The  Divine  Names  in  the  Bible.  What  the  Theology 
of  Judaism  is.  God  and  His  Names  according  to  the  Torah. 
The  Attributes  of  God.  The  Doctrines  of  the  Theology  of 
Judaism 1-25 

2.  Syllabus  of  a  Treatise  on  the  Development  of  Religious 

Ideas  in  Judaism  since  Moses  Mendelsohn,  by  Dr.  G. 
Gottheil. 
Reform  as  a  conscious  change  of  existing  conditions  or  beliefs. 
Reformed  Judaism  originated  in  Germany,  but  was  consist- 
ently carried  out  in  America.  The  influence  of  Mendelsohn. 
History  of  Reformed  Judaism.  The  doctrines  and  tenets 
commonly  believed  by  Reformed  Jews.  Reformed  Judaism 
a  new  Judaism 26-34 

3.  The  Sabbath  in  Judaism,  by  Dr.  B.  Felsenthal. 

Origin  of  the  Sabbath.  History  of  the  Sabbath  institution 
among  the  Jews.  The  place  of  the  Sabbath  in  Jewish  life. 
The  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  in  this  country  shall  be  left 
to  the  individual 35-41 

4.  What  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  Have  Wrought  for  Mankind, 

BY  Dr.  Alexander  Kohut. 
Faith,  the  corner-stone  of  human  civilization,  bequeathed  to 
the  world  by  the  Jews.  The  sciences  and  the  arts  were  cul- 
tivated on  the  soil  of  ancient  Judea.  But  principally  it  is 
through  their  religion  that  the  Jews  have  influenced  man- 
kind       42-48 

5.  The  Doctrine  of  Immortality  in   Judaism,  by  Rabbi  Joseph 

Stolz. 
The  assertion  that  the  ancient  Jews  did  not  believe  in  eternal 
life  refuted.     Proof  from  the  consensus  geniiian,  notably  from 

(xiii) 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

early  Semitic  beliefs;  from  Scriptural  evidences;  from  the 
post-Biblical  development  of  Jewish  doctrine;  from  apocrj'- 
phal  and  later  Jewish  sources.  The  subject  of  eternal  pun- 
ishment       49-55 

G.  Judaism  and  the  Science  of  Comparative  Religions,  by  Rabbi 
Louis  Grossman,  D.D. 
The  difliculty  of  stating  the  beliefs  of  a  community  or  age. 
What  the  history  of  theology  amounts  to.  All  institutions 
are  compromises.  Religion  not  final,  unalterable.  The  term 
revelation  misleading.  Intense  dogmatism  in  Judaism  un- 
known. Dift'erences  of  opinion  rather  refer  to  church  policy  ; 
not  even  the  Bible  enjoys  final  authority  among  Jews.  In 
spite  of  the  unhampered  freedom  given  to  individuals,  Juda- 
ism has  maintained  a  marvelous  identity.  Religion  chiefly 
a  sociological  fact;  the  spirit  of  Judaism  is  best  realized  in 
the  domestic  virtues  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  new  science 
of  comparative  religions  sees -God  every-where;  Judaism 
may  readily  accept  its  teachings.  Judaism  is  bound  up  with 
the  Jewish  mind.  Judaism  respects  history ;  it  is  the  soul 
of  Jewish  history 56-71 

7.  The  Function  of  Prayer  According  to  Jewish   Doctrine,  by 

Rabbi  I.  S.  Moses. 
Freedom,  Unity  of  God,   Righteousness,   Peace — elements  of  ' 

Jewish  prayer.     Universality  of  the  Jewish  Jjrayers 72-78 

8.  A  Review  of  the  Messianic  Idea  from  the  Earliest  Times  to 

the  Risk  of  Christianity,  by  Dr.  I.  Schwab. 
Origin  of  the  Messianic  Idea.  Germs  reach  as  far  }>ack  as  the 
ninth  century  B.  C.  The  process  of  development  of  the 
idea.  Pre-  and  post-exilic  conceptions  as  to  a  Messiah,  nota- 
bly at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christianity.  The  Messianic 
idea  an  archetype  of  American  civilization 79-95 


II.     ETHICS. 

9.  The  Ethics  of  Ji  daism,  by  Dr.  I.  M.  Wi.se. 

Ethics  or  M<jrals  defined.  The  floral  Law  in  man.  The 
maxim  to  regulate  the  action.  The  advisory  autliority  for 
the  sake  of  certitude 99-106 

10.  Ethics  of  the  Talmid,  hv  Dit.  M.  ]Miklzineh. 

Tahnudical  Ethics  based  on  Biblical  Ethics.  Man  as  a  Moral 
Being.  Free  will.  Duty  of  self-preservation,  self-cultivation, 
accpiiring  knowledge,  and  industriousncss.  Justice,  truthful- 
ness, peaceableness,  an<l  charity.  The  absence  of  a.sccticism. 
A   suiiimary 107-113 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGES 

11.  Synagogue  and  Ciiukcii  in  Their  Mutual  Eelations,  Partic- 

ularly IN  Reference  to  the  Ethical  Teachings,  by  Dr. 

K.    KOIILER. 

Synagogue  and  Church  represent  refractions  of  the  same  truth. 
Synagogue  a  creation  of  the  Hasidim.  p]arly  Christianity 
based  on  the  teachings  of  the  Essenes,  incorporated  fully  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  true  character  of  Jesus.  The 
early  Church.  Mission  of  Church  and  Synagogue  comi^ared. 
The  higher  outlook.     The  Church  Universal 11-1-126 

12.  Universal  Ethics   of  Prof.  Heymann   Steinthal,   by  Rabbi 

Clifton  H.  Levy. 
Introduction.    Ethical  doctrines  of  Ideas.    Presentation  of  Ideas 
or  the  forms  of  new  life.     The  psychological  mechanism  of 
ethical  processes.     The  ethical  view  of  the  world 127-146 

13.  Reverence  and  Rationalism,  by  Maurice  H.  Harris,  A.  M., 

Ph.  a. 
Fear  succeeded  by  awe.  Religion  is  a  Weltanschauung  combined 
with  reverence.  Reverence,  not  fear,  the  controlling  influ- 
ence in  Judaism.  Outward  forms  of  reverence  must  be  kejjt 
distinct  from  the  inner,  reverential  attitude  of  the  soul. 
Ceremonialism  not  worse  than  official  reverence.  Revolt 
against  organized  religion.  Rationalism.  Reverence  may 
be  combined  with  a  rational  interpretaion  of  the  universe. 
The  claim  of  the  soul  must  be  vindicated 147-158 

14.  The  Greatness  and  Influence  of  Moses,  by  Dr.  G.  Gottheil. 
Moses,  the  liberator,  the  legislator,  the  moral  teacher 159-163 

15.  Human  Brotherhood  as  taught  by  the  Religions  based  on 

THE  Bible,  by  Dr.  K.  Kohler. 
The  Brotherhood  of  Man.     The  Fatherhood  of  God  the  basis  of 

man's  brotherhood 164-171 

III.     HISTORY. 

16.  The  Share  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Culture  of  the 

Various  Nations  and  Ages,  by  Gotthard  Deutsch,  Ph.D. 
Jewish  ideas  in  the  New  Testament.  Jewish-Alexandrian  Phi- 
losophy. The  Jewish-Arabic  Period.  Biblical  Criticism. 
The  age  of  reformation  and  Kabbala.  Spinoza.  Jews  in 
the  present  age 175-192 

17.  Contribution  of  the  Jews  to  the  Preservation  of  the  Sciences 

in  the  Middle  A.ges,  by  Dr.  Samuel  Sale. 
Bible  Criticism  and  Exegesis.     Grammar.     Medicine.     Travel. 

Poetry.    Astronomy.     Philosophy 193-203 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

18.  PIlfJTOHI.NXS    OF   .TlDALSM,    BY    RaBBI    E.    ScIIEEIBEK. 

History  of  .Tiulaism.     Jews  and  .Judaism.     Historians  of  the 

Jews  and  of  Judaism.     The  modern  historians 204-229 

19.  OirniODOX   or  Histokical  Judaism,  by  Rev.  r)u.  H.  Pereira 

^Iendes. 
Ideas  imx^arted  to  iNIoses.  Mosaic  code  of  ethics.  Peace, 
brotherhood,  happiness.  Judaism  and  Zoroastrianism. 
Separateness  of  historical  Judaism.  AVorship  rather  than 
doubt.  Judaism  joined  no  heresies.  Fruits,  not  foliage. 
Judaism  ahvaj^s  looks  to  God.  Continue  separating  and 
protesting.     Develojtment  of  Judaism.     Faith 230-240 

^       20.  The  Position  of  Woman  among  the  Jews,  by  Dr.  Max  Lands- 
berg. 
The  position  of  woman  in  Vjiblical,  media-val  and  modern  times.. 241-254 

IV.     STATE  AXD  SDCIETY. 

^       21.   Judaism    and   the   Modern   State,  by  Rabbi   David   Philip- 
son,  D.D. 
The  modern  state  differing  from  the  mediieval  state.     Emanci- 
pation of  the  Jews.     Pos-ition  of  the  Jews  in  regard  to  the 
state.     In  this  country 257-267 

22.  Judaism  a  Religion,  and  not  a  Race,  by  Rabbi  A.  Moses. 
The  Aryan  race.     Tlie  Semitic  race.     The  purity  of  the  Jewish 

race' 268-284 

21.  Poi'[i.AK    Fkroks   about   the  Jews,  by  Rabbi  Joseph  Silver- 
man, D.D. 
Popular  errors  al)0ut  the  Jews  analyzed  and  refuted.     The  es- 
tablishment of  a  literary  bureau  for  the  purjwse  of  refuting 
false  charges  recommended 285-294 

24.  Tin;  Outlook  tiF  Judais.m,  by  Mlss  Joski-iiink  Lazarus. 

"  Salvation  may  yet  again  be  of  the  Jews." 295-303 

25.  AViiAT    HAS   Judaism    done    for  Woman?   by  Miss   Hkxhiett.v 

SZOLI). 

Wmiiairs  placr  in  .b'wisli  life  and  doctrine  illustrated  from  Bi- 
ble and  post-biblical  literature 304-310 

\'.     <>i;<i.\XIZFI)   FORCES. 

26.  A  SABBATH-ScnooL  Union,  isy   Lk.  S.   IlioriiT 313-318 

27.  On  Instwuc  tii>n   in  the  I'osT-Ihiu.HAi,  I  Iistouv  hf  thi;  Jews  in 

•  •lit  SAiiiiATii  S(  iiooi.s,   r.v    Ih;.    I'..   Ffi.skn  ill  \  i 319-.326 


CONTENTS.  XV 11 

PAGES 

28.  The  Jewish  Plip.i.ication  Society  ov  A.mehica.  by  Mis.s  Henri- 

etta SzoLD 327-333 

29.  Traixixg  Schools,  by  Professok  G.  Bamberger 334-338 

30.  Personal  Service,  by  Dr.  A.  Gvtmax 339-341 

31.  PoptLAR  Lectures,  by  Dr.  A.  M.  Radix 342-347 

32.  Union  of  Young  Israel,  by  S.  L.  Eldridge 348-352 

33.  What  Organized  Forces  can  do  for  Judaism,  by  Rabbi  Henry 

Berkowitz,  D.D 353-357 

34.  The  Social  Settle.ment,  by  Professor  Charles  Zeublin 358-361 

35.  Relief  Societies,  by  Mr.  Henry  L.  Frank 362-363 

VI.     GENERAL. 

36.  The  Voice  of  the  Mother  of  Religions  on  the  Social  Ques- 

tion, BY  Rabbi  H.  Berkowitz,  D.D. 
Dignity  of  labor.  Responsibility  of  the  individual  for  society, 
and  of  society  for  the  individual.  A  human  brotherhood 
under  the  care  of  a  divine  Fatherhood — the  highest  ideal  of 
society.  Freedom  of  the  individual.  The  Mosaic-Talraudic 
institutions  and  laws  of  untold  worth  to  the  present  in  the 
solution  of  the  social,  question 367-372 

37.  The  Genius  of  the  Talmud,  by  Dr.  Alexander  Kohut. 

A  description  of  the  Halakha  and  Haggadha 373-385 

38.  Elements  of  Universal  Religiox,  by'  Dr.  Emil  G.  Hirsch. 
Religion  a  natural  function  of  the  human  soul.     Religious  sy.s- 

tems  pretending  to  universality.  The  Church  Universal 
will  have  no  creed,  l)nt  will  have  much  more  of  God  than 
the  dogmatists  have.  ^laimonides  quoted.  Character  and 
conduct— the  Gospel  of  the  Church  of  Humanity.  Sin— a 
moral  imperfection.  Duty  of  labor.  Religion  will  penetrate 
into  all  the  relations  of  human  society.  Distinction  be- 
tween secular  and  sacred  wiped  away.  A  life  worthily 
spent  here  will  be  the  l)est  preparation  for  heaven.  Prayer 
and  "Worship.  "  Religion  made  the  Bible,  not  the  book  re- 
ligion."    The  Church  of  Go<l 386-390 

39.  Jewish   Contributions   to   Civilization,  by    Professor   D.  G. 

Lyox. 
The  Jew  has  given  us  the  Bible,  a  library  of  ethics  and  relig- 
ion.   The  Jew  has  taught  us  the  doctrine  of  (iod's  Unity 
and  His  Fatherhood,  of  human  brotherhood,  of  the  dignity 
and  immortalitv  of  the  soul,  of  the  golden  age  before  us. 


XVUl  CONTENTS. 

PAGES 

The  Sabbath  as  a  religious  institution  we  owe  to  the  Jew. 
Jesus  was  a  Jew  ;  Christianity  and  the  Church  are  Jewish 
institutions.  The  Jew  has  bequeathed  to  the  world  the 
highest  ideals  of  life 391-407 

40.  I.VTRODUCTION     TO    A    BlBLIOGKAI'IIY    OF    THE    JeWISH     PERIODICAL 

Press,  by  Dr.  Isaac  M.  Wise. 
The  origin  of  the  Jewish   periodical  press,  its  character  and  in- 
fluence   402-409 

41 .  The  Archbishop  of  Z.\nte  on  the  Blood  Accusation 410 

42.  Ke.marks  on  Anti-Semitism,  by  Archbishop  Joh.x  Ireland 411-413 


JEWISH  DENOMINATIONAL  CONGRESS. 


THE  OPENING  SESSION. 

On  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  August,  in  the  Hall  of  Columbus 
in  the  Art  Palace,  in  the  presence  of  a  highly  interested  audience,  the 
Jewish  Denominational  Congress  opened  its  sessions.  It  was  the 
first  of  tlie  many  denominational  congresses  held  in  connection  with 
the  Parliament,  and  the  general  feeling  seemed  to  be  that  it  was  par- 
ticularly appropriate  that  the  key-note  of  the  Parliament  should  be 
struck  by  the  mother  of  monotheistic  religicms. 

The  exercises  opened  with  prayer  by  Rabbi  I.  L.  Leucht,  of  New 
Orleans,  La.,  as  follows  : 

Almighty  and  most  merciful  God,  Sovereign  of  the  Universe! 
Deeply  impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  this  moment,  we  approach 
Thee  and  crave  for  Thy  blessing.  Thou  art  the  source  of  all  wisdom, 
the  light  of  our  soul  is  but  a  spark  borrowed  from  Thy  glory,  lead- 
ing us  to  height?,  where  Tliou  alone  reignest  supreme. 

O  Father,  we  stand  in  need  of  that  divine  light  shedding  a  ray 
of  hope  into  the  darkness  of  our  mundane  existence,  that  we  may 
not  be  engulfed  by  the  waves  of  selfishness  and  earthly  glory,  that  we 
may  find  fortitude  and  faith  in  times  of  danger  and  pain,  in  hours  of 
doubt  and  infidelity,  enabling  us,  O  Lord,  to  proclaim  at  all  times  that 
Thou  art  our  God — and  without  Thee  there  is  no  salvation. 

O  God,  of  all  nations,  the  children  of  all  peoples  have  come 
hither  to  prove  the  wonders  of  human  achievements,  to  show  forth 
the  treasures  of  the  earth,  and  now  they  do  assemble  to  acknowledge 
that  they  have  not  forgotten  the  Giver  of  all,  proclaiming  each,  in 
his  own  tongue,  that  Thou  art  the  King  of  all  Kings,  the  Ruler  of  the 
world,  the  Preserver  of  all  things.  The  first  called  to  emphasize  and 
to  acknowledge,  before  the  world,  eternal  fidelity  and  allegiance  to 
Thee,  great  God,  comes  Israel. 

O  Father^  from   the  beginning  of  our  pilgrimage  Thou  hast  en- 

(xix) 


XX  JEWISH   DENOMINATIONAL   CONGRESS. 

trusted  us  with  this  mission,  to  walk  before  tlie  peoples  of  the  earth 
proclaiming  Thy  truth  and  Thy  unity.  From  Abraham,  the  father 
of  all  nations,  to  Moses,  Thy  trusted  servant,  even  to  this  day,  we 
have  never  ceased  to  cry  aloud,  "  Thou,  Jehovah,  art  our  strength." 
Every  age  has  heard  this  cry,  its  echo  vibrates  throughout  all  lauds, 
and  from  every  mountaiu  top  thrilled  the  message,  "  Hear,  0  Israel, 
the  Jjord  is  our  God  ;  the  Lord  is  Oue." 

Heavenly  Father,  we  thank  Thee  for  this  great  day,  when  ful- 
fillment draws  near — when  all  lands  join  in  that  great  hymn  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving,  whose  every  verse  is  but  a  chord  of  that  grand  an- 
them, lifting  all  mankind  to  the  same  inspiration,  the  same  father,  the 
same  ideal,  the  same  God,  who  knows  but  one  justice,  but  one  love. 

O  God,  let  this  gathering — only  the  beginning  of  a  grand  divine 
service,  such  as  the  world  never  witnessed,  be  sweet  incense  in  Thy 
sight.  Help  us,  O  Lord,  in  our  endeavor  of  binding  man  closer  to 
man,  linking  heart  nearer  to  heart.  O,  let  it  be  a  mountain  of  the 
Lord,  where  all  nations  gather  to  praise  Thee.  Let  it  be  a  Sinai, 
from  whose  crest  once  more  will  resound  the  trumpets  of  Revelation — 
announcing  to  those  near  and  far — Thy  Unity  and  Thy  Love  for  ever- 
more !     Amen ! 

Mr.  Charles  C.  Bonney,  President  of  the  World's  Congress  Aux- 
iliary, and  General  President  of  the  World's  Congresses  of  1893, 
thereupon  delivered  the  address  of  welcome. 

Masters  and  Teachers  of  Israel,  Officers  and  Members  of  the  Jewish 
Denominational  Congress  of  1893  :  The  providence  of  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac  and  Jacob,  who  created  man  in  his  own  image,  and  gave 
him  from  Sinai's  glory-crowned  summit  the  law  of  a  righteous  life,  has 
so  ordered  the  arrangements  for  the  Religious  Congresses,  to  be  held 
under  the  auspices  of  the  AVorld's  Congress  Auxiliary  of  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition,  that,  without  any  plan  to  that  end,  this  Con- 
gress of  the  Jewish  Church  is  the  first  of  tiie  series.  The  month  of 
August  having  been  assigned  for  the  Ccnigresses  on  Engineering,  Art, 
Government,  Science,  and  kindred  subjects,  the  month  of  September 
was  set  apart  for  tlie  Congresses  of  that  greatest  department  of  the 
World's  Congress  work,  the  Department  of  Religion.  For  this  reason 
many  efforts  were  made  to  fix  a  later  date  for  this  Congress,  but  it  was 
found  impracticable  to  do  so;  and  when  the  present  date  was  finally 
settled,  it  was  not  then  expected  that  place  could  be  found  for  the  ses- 
sions of  the  Congress  in  the  Memorial  Art  Palace,  but  that  one  of  the 
Chicago  synagogues  must  be  selected  for  them.     But  when  the  assign- 


OPENING   SESSION.  XXI 

raents  of  the  August  Congresses,  which  had  the  prior  right  to  this 
week,  were  finally  made,  it  was  happily  found  that  the  Jewish  Con- 
gress could  be  accommodated  here  where  the  other  religious  congresses 
will  be  held,  and  the  arrangements  were,  with  much  pleasure,  accord- 
ingly changed. 

Thus  the  Mother  Church,  from  which  all  the  Christian  denomina- 
tions trace  their  lineage,  and  which  stands  in  the  history  of  mankind 
as  the  especial  exponent  of  august  and  triumphant  theism,  has  been 
called  upon  to  open  the  Religious  Congresses  of  1893. 

But  far  more  important  and  significant  is  the  fact  that  this  ar- 
rangement has  been  made,  and  this  Congress  has  been  formally  opened 
and  welcomed  by  as  ultra  and  ardent  a  Christian  as  the  world  con- 
tains. It  is  because  I  am  a  Christian,  and  the  Chairman  of  the 
General  Committee  of  Organization  of  the  Religious  Congresses  is  a 
Christian,  and  a  large  majority  of  that  committee  are  Christians,  that 
this  day  deserves  to  stand  ^old-bordered  in  human  history,  aS  one  of  the 
signs  that  a  new  age  of  brotherhood  and  peace  has  truly  come. 

AVe  know  that  you  are  Jews,  while  we  are  Christians,  and  would 
have  all  men  so,  but  of  all  the  precious  liberties  which  freemen  enjoy, 
the  highest  is  the  freedom  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
conscience;  and  this  great  liberty  is  the  right,  not  of  some  men,  but 
of  all ;  not  of  Christians  only,  but  of  Jews,  and  Gentiles  as  well.  I 
desire  from  all  men  respect  for  my  religious  convictions,  and  claim  for 
myself  and  mine  the  right  to  enjoy  them  without  molestation  ;  and  my 
Master  has  commanded  me  that  whatsoever  I  would  have  another  do 
to  me,  I  must  also  do  to  him.  What,  therefore,  I  ask  for  myself,  a 
Christian,  I  must  give  to  you  as  Jews.  Our  differences  of  opinion 
and  belief  are  between  ourselves  and  God,  the  Judge  and  Father  of 
us  all. 

Through  all  the  Sacred  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament,  we  walk 
side  by  side,  revering  the  creation  ;  journeying  through  the  wilderness; 
chanting  the  psalms  and  inspired  by  the  prophecies  ;  and  if  we  part  at 
the  threshhold  of  the  gospels,  it  shall  be,  not  with  anger,  but  with 
love,  and  a  grateful  remembrance  of  our  long  and  pleasant  journey 
from  Genesis  to  Malachi. 

The  supreme  significance  of  this  Congress  and  the  others  is,  that 
they  herald  the  death  of  Persecution  throughout  the  world,  and  pro- 
claim the  coming  reign  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

O  Religion  !  Religion  !  how  many  crimes  havte  been  committed 
in  thy  name  !  The  crimes  committed  in  the  name  of  Liberty  are  but 
few  in  comparison. 

Against   Religious   Persecution,  all   the   religions   of  the    world 


XXU  JEWISH   DENOMINATIONAL   CONGRESS. 

should  be  united  and  support  each  other  with  unfoiliug  zeal.  This  is 
not  saying  that  all  religions  are  of  equal  worth.  This  is  not  saying 
that  any  one  should  yield  one  jot  or  tittle  of  his  own  peculiar  faith. 
It  is  quite  the  contrary.  For  only  when  one  is  protected  in  his  proper 
liberties,  and  can  "act  in  freedom  according  to  reason,"  can  he  prop- 
erly examine  his  own  faith  or  that  of  his  fellow-man. 

With  perfect  religious  liberty,  with  comprehensive  and  adequate 
education,  with  a  life  according  to  the  great  commandments,  mankind 
will  come  into  closer  and  closer  relations;  into  a  better  and  better  un- 
derstanding of  their  social,  political,  and  religious  differences,  and  the 
living  power  of  the  truth,  guided  by  the  sovereign  providence  of  God, 
will  more  and  more  make  the  whole  world  one  in  human  brotherhood 
and  service,  and  finally  in  religious  faith. 

Henceforth  the  leaders  of  mankind  will  seek,  not  for  points  of 
difference,  but  for  grounds  of  union,  striving  earnestly  to  know  the 
truth,  that  the  truth  may  make  them  free  from  the  bondage  of  preju- 
dice and  error,  and  more  and  more  efficient  in  advancing  the  enlighten- 
ment and  welfare  of  the  world. 

With  these  sentiments  I  welcome  the  Jewish  Denominational 
Congress  of  1893." 

This  address,  received  with  marks  of  the  highest  approval,  was 
followed  by  remarks  introductory  to  the  work  of  the  Congress  by  the 
Rabbis  Isaac  M.  Wise,  of  Cincinnati,  Gustave  Gottheil,  of  New  York, 
and  Emil  G.  Hirsch,  of  Ciiicago. 

The  work  of  the  Congress  proper  was  thereupon  begun  by  Dr.  K. 
Kohler,  who  read  his  paper  on  "The  Synagogue  and  the  Church  and 
their  Mutual  Relations  with  Reference  to  their  Ethical  Teachings," 
which  will  be  found  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 


THEOLOGY. 


AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  THEOLOGY  OF  JUDAISM. 

By  rev.  dr.  ISAAC  M.  WISE. 


I.       A    PROLEGOMENON. 

The  Theology  of  Judaism,  in  the  opiuion  of  many,  is  a  new  aca- 
demic discipline.  They  maintain  Judaism  is  identical  with  legalism, 
it  is  a  religion  of  deeds  without  dogmas.  Theology  is  a  systematic 
treatise  on  the  dogmas  of  any  religion.  There  could  be  no  theology 
of  Judaism.  The  modern  latitudinarians  and  syncretists  on  their  part 
maintain  we  needmore  religion  and  less  theology,  or  no  theology  at 
all,  deeds  and  no  creeds.  For  religion  is  undefinable  and  purely  sub- 
jective ;  theology  defiues  and  casts  free  sentiments  into  dictatorial 
words.  Keligion  unites,  and  theology  divides,  the  human  family  not 
seldom  into  hostile  factious. 

Psychology  and  history  antagonize  these  objections.  They  lead 
to  the  conviction  that  truth  uuites  and  appeases,  while  error  begets 
antagonism  and*  fanaticism — error,  whether  in  the  spontaneous  beliefs 
or  in  the  scientific  formulas  of  theology,  is  the  cause  of  the  distracting 
factionalism  in  this  transcendental  realm.  Truth  well  defined  is  the 
most  successful  arbitrator  among  mental  combatants.  It  seems,  there- 
fore, tliat  the  best  method  of  uniting  the  human  family  is  to  con- 
struct a  well  defined,  rational,  and  humane  system  of  theology,  as  free 
from  error  as  possible,  which  will  appeal  directly  to  the  reason  and  con- 
science of  all  normal  men. 

Research  and  reflection  in  the  field  of  Israel's  literature  and  his- 
tory produce  the  conviction  that  a  code  of  laws  is  not  yet  a  religion. 
Legalism  is  but  one  side  of  Judaism.  The  underlying  principles  and 
doctrines  are  the  essential  Judaism  ;  these  are  the  material  to  the 
theology  of  Judaism,  and  these  are  essentially  dogmatic.  You  take 
Judaism  as  a  philosopheme,  it  is  certainly  dogmatic.  It  is  neither  em- 
pirical, skeptical,  nor  critical,  hence  it  must  be  dogmatic.  If  you  take 
it  as  a  body  of  principle,  doctrine,  and  precept  embodied  in  Holy 
Writ,  it  certainly  has  its  fundamental  truths  which,  if  formulated  in 
decreta  or  placita,  are  always  dogmas. 

Let  us  consider  a  few  particular  points.  The  scriptures  begin 
with  an  account  of  Creation.     Expound  this  as  you  may,  it  always 


2  THEOLOGY. 

centers  iu  the  proposition  of  the  priority  aud  siiperioi-iiy  of  a  sub- 
stiuitial  being — call  it  spirit,  causative  power,  God,  or  by  any  other 
name — prior  and  superior  to  all  material  being  and  its  modalities;  and 
this,  however  formulated,  is  a  dogma. 

The  scriptures  from  the  first  to  the  last  page  advance  the  doctrine 
of  DIVINE  INSPIRATION  AND  REVELATION.  Keason  about  it  as  you 
may,  it  always  centers  in  the  proposition  :  There  exists  a  fiaculty  of 
intercommunication  between  that  universal,  prior,  and  supei-ior  being 
and  the  individualized  being  called  man  ;  and  this  also  is  a  dogma. 

The  scriptures  teach  that  the  Supreme  Being  is  also  Sovereign 
Providence.  He  provides  sustenance  for  all  that  stand  in  need  of  it.  He 
foresees  and  foreordains  all,  shapes  the  destinies  and  disposes  the  affairs 
of  man  and  mankind,  and  takes  constant  cognizance  of  their  doings. 
He  is  the  law-giver,  the  judge,  and  the  executor  of  his  laws.  Press  all 
this  to  the  ultimate  abstraction  and  formulate  it  as  you  may,  it  always 
centers  in  the  proposition  of  Die  sittllche  Weltordnimg,  the  universal, 
moral  theocracy,  which  is  the  base  of  all  canons  of  ethics;  and  this 
again  is  a  dogma. 

The  scriptures  teach  that  virtue  is  rewarded  and  vice  punished, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  voluntary  actions  of  man  ;  furthermore  that  the 
free  and  benevolent  Deity  under  certain  conditions  pardons  sin,  in- 
iquity, and  transgression.  Here  is  an  apparent  contradiction  between 
justice  aud  grace  in  the  Supreme  Being.  Press  this  t(*  its  ultimate  ab- 
straction, formulate  it  as  you  may,  and  you  will  always  arrive  at  some 
proposition  concerning  atonement ;  and  this  also  is  a  dogma. 

Furthermore,  scriptures  teach  with  special  emphasis  the  Yiivii 
Monotheism.  This  is  not  the  indefinite  theo-raonism  of  the  primitive 
element  worshipers,  nor  the  illative  monotheism  of  the  Shemitic  or 
Aryan  paganism,  supposed  to  underlie  the  polytheism  of  elemental 
astrolatry  or  anthropomorphous  theology.  It  has  nothing  iu  common 
with  any  god  or  gods  made  by  human  hand  or  fancy  ;  nothing  in 
common  with  the  abstract  deities  or  god-ideas  of  philosophy,  ancient 
or  modern,  which  are  metaphysical  postulates  without  substantial  ex- 
istence ;  nor  witli  the  artificial  god  or  gods  of  inductive  speculation, 
like  Hegel's  perpetually  self-developing  "  Geist,"  which  is  the  original 
of  the  Darwinistic  and  Auguste  Comte's  metaphysics;  nor  with  the 
"Will"  of  Schopenhauer,  the  "Unconscious"  (Das  Unbeivusde)  of 
Ed.  von  Hartmann,  tiie  subsequent  "  Panlogism,"  or  "Panpsychism," 
and  the  last  phase  of  the  whole,  the  "  Unknowable"  of  British  specu- 
lation. It  is  a  unique  Yhvh  monotheism  without  precedent  or 
parallel  in  history  which  scriptures  teach,  a  belief  in  an  eternal  living 
God,    tiie    author,    preserver,    and    governor    of    the    entire    cosmos, 


TIIK    THEOLOGY    OF    JUDAISM.  6 

•\vho  possesses,  enlivens,  and  permeates  the  All  without  being  sub- 
merged in,  clianged,  or  limited  by  this  All,  the  self-conscious  wisdom 
and  benevolence  in  the  All,  without  any  dependency  on  the  All. 
"God  is  he  that  is,  and  all  the  rest  but  seems  to  be."  This  Yhvh 
monotheism  is  no  philosopheme ;  reason  neither  could  nor  did  invent 
it,  reason  can  not  deny  it,  it  can  only  construe  it;  it  is  a  dogma. 
And  according  to  all  ancient  and  modern  expounders  of  scripture,  it 
is  a  dogma  on  which  depends  the  salvation  of  man.  Therefore  it  is 
correct  to  maintain  that  Judaism  has  its  dogmas;  hence  there  may  be 
built  up  a  theology  of  Judaism. 

Whether  it  is  necessary  to  formulate  and  establish  tliese,  other,  or 
in  fact  any  dogmas,  in  order  to  construct  a  system  of  theology,  can  be 
decided  only  after  we  have  ascertained  what  theology  is,  what  the 
theology  of  Judaism  is.* 

2.       WHAT    THEOLOGY   IS. 

Theology  is  the  science  of  man's  religious  knowledge.  Science 
is  ratiocinated  and  systematized  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  any 
conception  of  fact,  phenomenon  or  sentiment  made  permanent  in 
consciousness.  Man's  religious  knowledge  is  the  complex  of  con- 
ceptions of  facts,  phenomena  or  sentiments  concerning  the  Supreme 
Being  of  his  own  cognition,  that  Being's  nature  and  commaudments, 
man's  duties,  hopes  or  fears  accordingly,  and  his  relations  to  that 
Supreme  Being.  Since  all  religious  knowledges  center  in  man's 
cognition  of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  science  of  these  knowledges  is 
properly  called  theology,  "  a  treatise  or  discourse  on  or  of  God." 

The  ratiocination  of  conceptions  and  knowledge  entering  into  any 
system  of  science  is  the  work  of  the  faculty  of  reason.  This  is  the 
point  where  theology  and  philosophy  meet,  but  only  to  separate  again 
from  each  other  at  the  next  step  in  advance.  Theology  is  no  meta- 
physics, no  ontology,  no  psychology  and  no  philosophy  of  religion, 
consequently  its  operations  and  methods  differ  from  all  of  them. 

•■■  We  know  that  tlie  attempt  to  formulate  these  dogmas  by  Moses 
INIaimonides  and  other  authorities,  before  and  after  him,  proved  a  failure. 
No  two  of  them  agreed  in  the  numbers,  essence  or  wording  of  the  dogmas. 
Maimonitles  himself  in  his  philosophical  book,  Moreh  i\>6?<c^iun— although 
his  formulas, were  placed  in  the  common  ]iniyer  book  of  the  synagogue — 
drops  the  last  two,  and  in  his  Eabbinical  code,  Mlshudh  TJioraJt,  emphasizes 
but  two,  viz:  God  and  Revelation.  See  Yesode  Hathorah  i,  and  vii,  1 ;  .To- 
seph  Albo's  Ikkurim.  section  1 ;  Isaac  Abarbanel's  Rosh  Amanah  and 
Chasdai  Kreskas'  Or  Adonai,  and  compare  first  Mishnah  of  section  Chelek 
in  Sanhrdrin. 


4  THEOLOGY. 

Ratiocination  signifies  the  generation  of  a  judgment  from  others 
actually  in  our  understanding.  I  compare  the  conception  or  knowledge 
to  be  ratiocinated  with  those  I  possess;  if  there  exists  nothing  contrary 
or  contradictory  to  it  in  my  consciousness,  I  hold  it  to  be  true,  true  for 
me;  it  is  subjectively  true.  The  next  higher  step  is,  I  compare  this 
new  conception  or  knowledge  with  the  knowledge  of  mankind,  with 
that  which  all  men  know,  and  if  there  exists  nothing  contrary  to  it  in 
the  consciousness  of  mankind,  I  hold  it  to  be  objectively  true;  it  is 
true  with  all  rational  beings. 

In  theology,  as  in  every  other  transcendental  science,  none  can 
nor  need  go  beyond  this  for  ratiocination.  AVhatever  all  men  ever 
knew  to  be  true  is  true  to  all ;  it  is  self-evident  because  it  is  evident  to 
all.  Theology  can  safely  build  its  structure  upon  the  universal  knowl- 
edge of  men.  Philosophy  in  fact  does  the  same.  It  can  not  produce 
facts  or  phenomena,  or  the  conceptions  of  either.  It  can  only  reason 
on  them,  hypothetically  determine  the  degree  of  possibility,  or  proba- 
bility, analyze,  construct  and  define  that  which  it  has  adopted  from  the 
universal  knowledge  of  mankind.  jNInnkind  knows  much  more  than 
reasoners  elaborated.  Philosophy  in  these  three  thousand  years  elab- 
orated but  a  few  problems  which  mankind's  reason  begets.  In  all  this, 
however,  it  relied  on  mankind's  knowledge  more  than  on  the  syllogism. 
None  can  reason  on  naught.  Knowledge  precedes  the  process  of  rea- 
son and  claims  justly  the  priority  in  time  and  superiority  of  evi- 
dence over  all  products  of  reason.  Mankind's  universal  knowledge  in 
each  particular  case  is  the  conclusion  of  a  syllogism,  the  antecedents 
of  which  the  philosopher  may  or  may  not  discover. 

3.       THE   POSTULATES   OF   THEOLOGY. 

As  far  back  into  the  twilight  of  myths,  the  early  dawn  of  human 
reason,  as  the  origin  of  religious  knowledge  was  traced,  mankind  was 
in  possession  of  four  dogmas.  They  were  always  present  in  men's 
consciousness,  although  philosophy  has  not  discovered  the  antecedents 
of  the  syllogism,  of  which  these  are  the  conclusions.  The  exceptions 
are  only  such  tribes,  clans  or  individuals  as  had  not  yet  become  conscious 
of  their  own  sentiments,  those  latter  not  yet  having  been  crystallized 
into  conceptions,  in  consequence  whereof  they  had  no  words  to  express 
them  ;  but  those  are  very  rare  exceptions.     These  four  dogmas  are  : 

1,  There  exists — in  one  or  more  forms — a  Superior  Being,  living, 
mightier  and  higher  than  any  other  being  known  or  imagined.  (Ex- 
istence of  God. ) 

2.  There  is  in  the  nature  of  this  Superior  Being,  and  in  the  nature 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  O 

of  niiiD,  the   capacity  and   desire  for  mutual   sympathy,  inter-relation 
and  inter-conimunicatiou.      (Revelation  and  worship.) 

3.  The  good  and  the  right,  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  are  desir- 
able, the  opposites  thereof  are  repugnant  to  the  Superior  Being  and  to 
man.     (Conscience,  ethics,  and  aesthetics.) 

4.  There  exists  for  man  a  state  of  felicity  or  suffering  beyond  this 
state  of  mundane  life.      (Immortality,  reward,  or  punishment.) 

These  four  dogmas  of  the  human  family  are  the  postulates  of  all 
theology  and  theologies ;  and  they  are  axiomatic.  They  require  no 
proof,  for  what  all  men  always  knew  is  self-evident;  and  no  proof  can 
be  adduced  to  them,  for  they  are  transcendent  (trans  conscientiam  com- 
munein).  Philosophy,  with  its  apparatuses  and  methods  of  cogitation, 
can  not  arrive  at  them,  it  can  only  expound  them  ;  it  can  not  negate 
them,  and  no  reasoner  ever  proved  such  negation  satisfactorily  even 
to  himself. 

All  systems  of  theology  are  built  on  these  four  postulates.  They 
differ  only  in  the  definitions  of  the  quiddity,  the  extension  and  expan- 
sion of  these  dogmas  in  accordance  with  the  progression  or  retrogres- 
sion of  different  ages  and  countries.  They  differ  in  their  derivation 
of  doctrine  and  dogma  from  the  main  postulates;  their  reduction  to 
practice  in  ethics  and  worship,  forms  and  formulas ;  their  methods  of 
application  to  human  affairs,  and  their  notions  of  obligation,  account- 
ability, hope  or  fear. 

These  accumulated  differences  in  the  various  systems  of  theology, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  not  logically  contained  in  the  postulates,  are 
subject  to  criticism  ;  an  appeal  to  reason  is  always  legitimate,  a  rational 
justification  is  requisite.  The  ai-guments  advanced  in  all  these  cases 
are  not  always  appeals  to  the  standard  of  reason — therefore  the  disa- 
greements— they  are  mostly  historical.  "Whatever  we  have  not  from 
the  knowledge  of  all  mankind,  we  have  from  the  knowledge  of  a  very 
respectable  portion  of  it  in  our  holy  books  and  sacred  traditions" — is 
the  main  argument.  So  each  system  of  theology,  in  as  far  as  it  differs 
fiT)m  others,  relies  for  proof  of  its  particular  conceptions  on  its  tradi- 
tions written  or  unwritten,  as  the  knowledge  of  a  portion  of  mankind; 
so  each  parlicular  theology  depends  on  its  sources. 

So  also  does  Judaism.  It  is  based  upon  the  four  postulates  of  all 
theology,  and  in  justification  of  its  extensions  and  expansions,  its 
derivation  of  doctrine  and  dogma  from  the  main  postulates,  its  entire 
development,  it  points  to  its  sources  and  traditions,  and  at  various 
times  also  to  the  standard  of  reason,  not,  however,  till  the  philoso- 
phers pressed  it  to  reason  in  self-defense  ;  because  it  claimed  the  divine 


6  THEOLOGY. 

authority  for  its  sources,  higher  than  which  there  is  none.     And  so  \vc 
have  arrived  at  our  subject : 

4.       WHAT   THE   THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM    IS. 

We  know  what  theology  is,  so  we  must  define  here  only  what 
Judaism  is.* 

Judaism  is  the  complex  of  Israel's   p.eligious  sentiments 

RATIOCINATED    INTO  CONCEPTIONS  IN    HARMONY  WITH    ITS  JehOVISTIC 

God-cognition. 

These  conceptions  made  permanent  in  the  consciousness  of  this 
people  form  the  substratum  to  the  Theology  of  Judaism.  They  are 
recorded  in  the  national  literature  of  the  Hebrews,  and  actualized  in 
their  history,  which  records  also  the  temporary  aberrations,  the  com- 
bat of  the  logical  and  illogical  in  the  historical  process. 

This  definition  of  Judaism  is  justified  by  the  Hebrew  records.  It 
is  presupposed  in  the  opening  chapters  of  Genesis,  that  the  progres- 
sive development  of  the  '  monotheistic  religious  knowledge  in  the 
human  family  was  preserved  by  certain  patriarchs — this  is  also  the 
opinion  of  the  Talmudical  sages — and  reached  Abraham  in  the  full- 
ness of  its  opulence.  Abraham  was  in  his  time  the  heir  and  expo- 
nent of  mankind's  monotheistic  traditions,  or  perhaps  the  most  promi- 
nent of  that  favored  class,  who  represented  an  esoteric  faith,  which 
Abraham  began  to  proclaim  publicly  in  Canaan.  It  was  a  name- 
less faith.  With  Abraham  begins  the  definite  God  of  revelation. 
When  this  patriarch  was  ninety -nine  years  old,  it  is  recorded,  G-enesis 
xvii.  the  first  time  in  these  records,  God  spoke  to  him  of  Himself,  ex- 
pounding what  He  is:  "I  am  Ail  Shaddai,  walk  before  me  and  be 
(become)  thou  perfect,  and  I  will  make  my  covenant  between  me  and 
thee."  Here  is  the  first  record  of  monotheistic  religion,  with  its  ob- 
ject, "to  be  (become)  perfect,"  and  its  method,  to  walk  before  God, 
in  the  light  of  God,  to  think  and  act  God-like,  to  shape  the  moral 
conduct  according  to  the  God-idea,  which  is  its  ideal  and  pattern,  and 
identical  with  the  religious  knowledges  ratiocinated  in  harmony  with 
the  God-cognition. 

Four  centuries  of  progressive  development  elapsed  between  the 

*  Judaism  is  a  niisnninor  for  the  religion  of  Israel.  It  apulics  only  to 
that  status  of  relipi(m  which  was  developed  and  established  in  Judea,  i.  e., 
tn  one  phase  of  that  rclijrion,  and  especially  the  one  which  was  developed 
from  and  after  the  revolution  under  tlic  Asmoneans  ( Ki?  B.C.)  Still  the 
word  is  so  old,  venerable  and  poi)ular.  that  it  can  not  well  be  replaced  by 
its  original  designation,  wliiMi  is  Hlil'  HN")^  "The  fear,  veneration,  and 
worsiiip  of  Jihovah  (Psalm  xix,  10),  which  eiulureth  forever." 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    JUDAISM.  7 

God-revelation  to  Abraham  and  to  Moses,  characterized  by  the  ethical 
height  of  Joseph,  the  faith  and  trust  in  God  by  the  Elders  of  Israel  in 
Egypt  (Exodus  iv,  27-31),  and  the  prophetical  powers  of  Moses.  A 
new  era  of  religion  begins,  it  is  the  Mosaic  dispensation.  It  begins 
n-)t  with  a  legislation  ;  it  begins  with  the  revelation  of  God  Himself 
to  Moses  (Exodus  iv,  14-16).  The  G<jd-cogiiition  always  precedes  the 
embodiment  of  the  religious  idea  into  commandment  and  institution  ; 
fir  the  God-cognition  is  the  principle,  first  cause,  and  touchstone  for 
all  religious  knowledges,  ordinances,  and  institutions,  all  religious  dog- 
mas and  practices,  all  of  which  must  be  effects  of  that  first  cause,  le- 
gitimate conclusions  from  that  principle,  sequences  of  that  antecedent. 
The  law  of  laws  is,  "  Whatever  is  in  ray  cognition  of  God,  is  imperative 
in  mv  religion  ;  whatever  is  contrarv  to  mv  cognition  of  God,  is  irre- 
ligious  and  forbidden  to  me."  Israel  did  not  make  its  God,  God  made 
Himself  known  to  Israel,  and  its  entire  religion  grew  out  of  this 
knowledge ;  whatever  is  not  in  harmony  with  this  principal  knowledge 
is  aberration,  error.  In  Judaism,  therefore,  all  religious  sentiments 
must  be  ratiocinated  into  conceptions  in  harmony  with  its  Jehovistic 
God-cognition.  Therefore  Israel's  religion  is  called  mH'  HXT  '"  Ven- 
eration and  Worship  of  Jehovah  ;"  its  laws  and  institutions  are  divine 
inasmuch  as  they  are  the  sequence  of  this  antecedent;  and  its  ex- 
pounders maintain  that  this  monotheism  is  the  only  dogma  of  Juda- 
ism.    Its  formula  is  iHi^  'H  Ij'n?^  T\  and  its  categoric  Imperative, 

its  law  of  laws,  is  ^:hn  nynhi^  'n  nnK 

The  Theology  of  Judai&m  is  the  science  of  Israel's  religious  concep- 
tions, these  being  the  doctrinal,  ethical,  and  practical  sequences  following  le- 
gitimately from  the  one  'principle  antecedent  to  them,  which  is  Israel's  God- 
cognition.  ■  ■     . 

Its  evidence  is  in  the  four  postulates  of  all  theology,  the  universal 
knowledge  of  mankind;  in  the  revelations  recorded  in  the  Thorah, 
the  universal  knowledge  of  a  large  portion  of  mankind  ;  in  the  stand- 
ard of  reason  and  the  demonstration  of  history,  to  which  it  refers  all 
doctrine  not  contained  in  the  four  postulates  and  in  the  Thorah.* 

•■■■  Thorah  signifies  "  The  teaching,"  emphatically,  even  as  the  term  hihlia 
or  Bible  was  adopted  for  ''the  book,"  emphatically;  also  the  Canon,  the 
Law,  to  direct  authoritatively  man's  reason,  volition,  and  action.  Tlie  five 
books  of  Moses  are  the  Thorah,  the  primary  sources  of  the  "  teaching  and 
canon  "  of  Israel's  religion.  The  other  books  of  Holy  Writ  are  secondary 
.sources,  relating  to  the  Thorah  as  commentaries  by  inspired  men,  as  far  as 
the  ''teaching  and  canon"  are  concerned;  and  all  post-biblical  writings  on 
the  "  teaching  and  canon  "  as  laid  down  in  the  Thorah  and  expounded  in 
Prophets  and  Hagiographa,  stand  in  relation  to  the  Thorah  as  sub-corn- 


8  THEOLOGY. 

It  consists  of  two  main  divisions : 

1.  God  and  His  attributes  as  revealed  in  the  Thorah. 

2.  The  doctrinal,  ethical,  and  practical  sequences,  following  legiti- 
mately from  this  God-cognition. 

We  shall  begin  by  considering  the  first. 

5.       GOD    AND    HIS    NAMES   ACCORDING    TO    THE    THOKAH. 

NVe  approach  this  most  important,  most  solemn  and  sublime 
problem  with  deep  veneration  and  profound  reflection.  It  is  the 
grandest  and  most  inscrutable  of  all  thoughts  and  ideals  of  men  ;  it  is 
God  and  his  attributes  we  are  to  discuss.  I  only  venture  out  upon 
this  fathomless  and  boundless  deep  because  I  am  to  discuss  this  theme 
of  the  infinite  under  the  limitation  "according  to  theThorah;"  and 
the  Tliorah  is  a  book,  and  a  book  may  be  understood  correctly  bv  an 
ordinary  mortal,  if  his  canon  of  exegesis  harmonizes  with  the  standard 
of  reason. 

I  have  to  lay  down,  in  this  connection,  the  following  rules  of  ex- 
egesis : 

1.  The  Thorah  maintains  that  its  "teaching  and  canon"  are 
divine.  Man's  knowledge  of  the  True  and  the  Good  comes  to  his  rea- 
son and  conscience  (which  is  unconscious  reason)  either  directly  from 
the  supreme  and  universal  Reason,  the  absolutely  True  and  Good  ;  or 
it  comes  to  him  indirectly  from  the  same  source  by  the  manifestations 
of  nature,  the  facts  of  history  and  his  power  of  induction.  This 
principle  is  in  conformity  with  the  second  postulate  of  theology,  and 
its  extension  in  harmony  with  the  standard  of  reason. 

2.  All  knowledge  of  God  and  His  attributes,  the  True  and  the 
Good,  came  to  man  by  successive  revelations,  of  the  indirect  kind 
first,  which  we  may  calTnatural  revelation,  and  the  direct  kind  after- 
ward, which  we  may  call   transcendental  revelation  ;   both  these  reve- 

mentaries  to  the  original  text  and  its  inspired  expounders.  This  is  the 
historical  position  of  Judaism.  Tho.se  Bible  critics  who  maintain  that  the 
five  books  of  Moses  in  the  form  before  us  were  written  after  Prophets, 
must  admit  that  the  main  "teaching  and  canon"  existed  traditionally  or 
in  any  other  form  prior  to  tlie  proi)hets  and  psalmists;  or  they  must  postu- 
late that  inspired  men  of  a  later  date  abstracted  from  existent  literature  all 
"  teaching  and  canon"  and  coni{)iled  it  in  this  Thoruli  form;  or  they  must 
place  themselves  upon  tlie  non-Israelitish  and  non-historical  standpoint; 
for  this  is  unexceptionaily  and  incontroveilibly  the  historical  Israelitisli 
standpoint  that  the  "  teaching  and  canon  "  is  in  the  Thorah,  and  it  is  there- 
fore calleii  Thorah  or  more  explicitly.  ,11(1*  miil  (d^euter.  iv,  8;  xvii,  11. 
1S>;  xxxi,  24.  25;  xxxiii,  4;  Psalm  xix,  18.  See  the  author's  "Prouaos  to 
Holy  Writ" J. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  .  9 

lations  concerning  God  and  His  substantial  attributes,  together  with 
their  historical  genesis,  are  recorded  iu  the  Thoruh  in  the  Seven- 
Holy  Names  of  God,*  to  which  neither  prophet  nor  philosopher  in 
Israel  added  even  one,  and  all  of  which  constantly  recur  in  all  Hebrew 
literature. 

3.  The  term  the  God  of  Revelation  is  intended  to  designate  God  as 
made  known  in  the  transcendental  revelations,  including  the  successive 
God-ideas  of  natural  revelation.  His  attributes  of  relation  are  made 
known  only  iu  those  passages  of  the  Thorah,  in  which  He  Himself  is 
reported  to  have  spoken  to  man  of  Himself,  His  name  and  His-  attri- 
butes, and  not  by  any  induction  or  inference  from  any  law,  story,  or 
doing  ascribed  to  Him  anywhere.  The  prophets  only  expand  or  define 
those  conceptions  of  Deity  which  these  passages  of  direct  transcendental 
I'evelation  in  the  Tliorab  contain.  There  exists  no  other  source  from 
which  to  derive  the  cognition  of  the  God  of  revelation. 

These  passages  are:  Genesis  xvii,  1,  2;  Exodus  iii,  6,  14.  15; 
XX,  1-5;  xxxiii,  17-23;  xxxiv,  5-10;  Leviticus  xix,  1.  2;  Deuter. 
V,  6-10.  Whatever  is  not  predicated  of  God  in  these  passages,  none 
can  predicate  of  Him. 

4.  God  called  in  the  Thorah  by  any  of  the  seven  holy  names,  or 
the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  God  of  the  Fathers,  the 
God  of  Israel,  or  by  the  prophets  the  God  enthroned  in  Zion  or 
Jerusalem,  can  not  be  understood  to  signify  a  tribal  God,  a  national 
God,  a  local  God,  or  any  special  God  ;  it  could  signify  only  the  one 
God  revealed  to  the  fathers,  or  known  and  worshiped  by  them  ;  God 
revealed  to  Israel,  known,  worshiped,  and  proclaimed  by  Israel  only, 
as  all  those  revelations  iu  the  Thorah  plainly  and  convincingly  teach, 
the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  judge  of  all  the  earth,  the  pos- 
sessor of  heaven  and  earth,  exalted  above  all,  p"rior  and  superior  to  all 
matter,  time,  and  space.  He  can  not  be  supposed  to  be  also  a  tribal, 
national,  special,  or  localized  God.f  The  prophets  and  hagiographeis 
never  understood  God  otherwise  than  as  the  Eternal,  Infinite,  Absolute, 
hence  Universal  and  Omnipresent  God,  the  very  highest,  broadest, 
and  deepest  conception  of  Deity  which  human  reason  is  capable  of; 
and  the  prophets  only  knew  of  God  and  His  attributes,  what  they  had 
learned  from  the  Tliorah.  They  anthropomorphized  the  Deity  in 
poetical  tropes,  metaphoric  language,  to  interpret  those  sublime  con- 
ception? to  the  gross  understanding  of  the  common   man,  or  to  move 

*  rpnD.3    P^NJi'   mO£^*   yDi^^  see  Talmua  in  Shebitoth,  p.  35,  also 
in  Sopherim  iv,  and  Moses  Maimonides  in  sixth  book  of  his  Code, 
t  The  whole  can  never  be  thought  of  as  a  part  of  itself. 


10  THEOLOGY. 

the  heart  to  love  and  afFectiou,  to  adiuiratiou,  veneration,  and  worship. 
Still  they  added  no  new  name  and  no  new  predicate  to  the  God  of 
Kevelation,  simply  because  human  reason  could  not  do  it,  could  con- 
ceive nothing  highe'r  than  the  highest. 

We  shall  examine  now  the  details  as  laid  down  in  the  sacred 
texts.     We  besrin  with  the  Seven  Holy  Names  of  God. 

1.     Sn*    ail. 

When  primitive  man  became  conscious  of  the  law  of  causality 
in  him,  he  recognized  elemental  power  about  and  above  him  which 
governed  him,  and  he  had  no  control  over  it.  He  recognized  a  super- 
human power,  and  this  was  to  him  the  first  revelation  of  a  Superior 
Being  in  the  form  of  an  empiric  observation  from  the  periphery  of 
nature. 

Holy  AVrit  maintains,  that  the  first  man,  called  Adam,  recognized 
his  own  superiority  over  his  fellow  beings,  and  the  existence  and  su- 
periority of  a  superhuman  power,  which  the  Shcmites  called  7^  (Ail) 
an  existent,  superhuman,  and  superior  power. 

Ail  is  the  positive  term  to  the  negative  7^^  Al  or  K7  Lo  of  the 
same  consonantal  letters.  The  latter  signify  the  relative  or  absolute 
not-being,  and  Ail  signifies  being  absolute,  causative  and  constant. 
Primitive  man  could  call  his  primitive  God-idea  Ail  only. 

In  Holy  Writ,  Ail  retained  itsindefinite  and  appellative  character. 

It  appears  with  the  article  /i^T]  and  the  possessive  suffix  *Sj»^;  in  pa- 
triarchal times  with  an  explanatory  term,  as  Ail  Elyon.  Ail  Roi, 
Ail  Olam,  Ail  Siiaddai,  the  conception  of  Ail  had  evidently  been 
enlarged  ;  in  Mosaic  time  Ail  is  used  where  anthropomorphous  or  ele- 
mental qualities  are  predicated  of  God,  as  Ail  rachiim  ivechunnun.  Ail 
qanna,  Ha-Ail  hagr/adol,  haggibbor  wehannora,  evidently  representing 
God  as  immanent  in  nature,  retaining  its  primary  signification.  In 
post-Mosaic  scriptures  Ail  is  used  for  'Er.oiiiM,  mostly  poetical,  and 
both  frequently  in  the  sense  of  immanence. 

Ail  is  in  iliAy  Writ  the  first  name  of  God  connected  with  the 
names  of  persons  and  places.  It  appears  in  the  Cain  (Genesis  iv,  IS) 
and  the  Sheth  family  (ibid.  v.  15),  and  then  in  the  family  of  the  patri- 
archs, like  Ishraa-ail  and  Isra-ail  ;  among  the  Syrians  (ibid.  xv.  o  mid 
xxii,  21),  in  ^Mesopotamia  (ibid,  xxvi,  15),  and  among  the  Edomites 
(Ibid,  xxxvi,  4,  39.  43).  The  names  of  places  with  .\iL,  like  Heth-ail 
and  Peni-ail  are  quite  frequent  in  the  old  Canuaniti.'^h  cities  named  in 
Joshua  XV,  xviii  and   xix.      Modern   orientalists   y.rove  that   the  term 

Ail,  changed    with  some  into  7*K  J^fl  '^"'  lI't^  ^^'Jis  there   in  all   lands 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  JUDAISM.  11 

and  languages,  from  India  to  the  desert  of  Sahara,  wherever  a  Sheni- 
itic  dialect  was  spoken,  as  the  name  of  a  god,  or  as  an  appellative 
denoting  divinity,  power,  or  dominion,  or  as  a  title  of  distinction  added 
or  prefaced  to  the  names  of  persons  or  places.  In  the  Koran  also 
the  names  of  the  angels  have  the  Ail  as  last  syllable.* 

2.   ^17^^  OR  n /{<  elovahh. 

The  differentiation  of  the  theo-monistic  idea  to  a  plurality  and 
variety  of  superior  beings  in  prehistoric  times  is  no  doubt  contempo- 
rary with  the  origin  of  the  different  languages.  The  primitive  tribes 
separated  from  one  another,  in  course  of  time  produced  distinct  dia- 
lects, gave  different  names  to  their  Ail,  and  also  different  attributes, 
accoiding  to  the  environs  and  fate  of  each  tribe.  One  happily  situ- 
ated saw  in  Ail  tlie  good  and  benevolent  god  ;  the  other,  exposed  to 
the  terrors  of  the  elements,  perceived  in  its  Ail  an  angry  and  destruc- 
tive deity,  and  a  third  may  have  experienced  both  sides  of  nature  and 
looked  upon  its  Ail  as  a  variable  sovereign.  When  after  centuries  of 
separation  some  of  those  tribes  met  and  coalesced  again,  they  brought 
together  a  polytheism  in  a  polyglot  community,  from  which  new  lan- 
guages, gods  and  cults  developed  in  course  of  time.  All  this,  how- 
ever, was  beneficial  iu  the  historical  process ;  it  prompted  man  to 
behold  Deity  from  different  aspects ;  these  were  revelations  from  vari- 
ous standpoints,  all  of  which  became  factors  of  progressive  develop- 
ment. The  historic  material  to  establish  those  differentiations  are 
meager  ;  we  rely  chiefly  on  retrospective  inferences.  The  other  and 
apparently  older  differentiation  of  the  God-idea  in  masculine  and  fem- 
inine deities  in  all  ancient  mythologies,  from  the  north-west  of  Europe 
to  the  south-east  of  Asia,  all  over  the  ancient  world,  is  marked  out  in 
the  holy  name  Elovahh,  after  the  form  of  ^llf. 

Two  different  forces  and  elements  of  nature,  the  generative  and 
the  proliferous,  marked  so  distinctly  in  the  organic  kingdom,  were  ob- 
served by  the  primitive  thinkers,  and  there  was  added  to  the  Ail  the 
AiLAH,  the  feminine  manifestation  of  the  Ail,  the  maternal  aspect  of 
nature.  This  Ailah  became  the  Allath  of  the  Phoenicians  and  As- 
syrians, which  Herodotus  identified  with  Urania;  the  Allat  of  the  pre- 
Mohammedan  Arabs,  the  Eloha  of  the  Syrians,  became  Astarte  among 
the  Chaldeans,  Tethys,  the   wife   and   sister  of  Oceanus,  according  to 

••■  Beitriige  zur  seinitischen  Relia;ionsgeschichte,  by  Friedrieh  Baethgen, 

« 

Berlin,  1888,  p.  270  sqq.  and  Excursus.  See  also  Sj^  in  dictionary  by 
Menahem  ben  Seruk,  Nachmanides  to  Genesis  i,  1  and  Lekach  Tob, 
ibid. 


12  THEOLOGY. 

Homer  the  progenitors  of  all  gods  and  men ;  Osiris  and  Isis  in  Egypt, 
the  masculine  and  feminine  gods  the  world  over  except  among  the 
Hebrews,  who  clianged  the  Ailah  into  Elovahh,  to  change  its  gen- 
der, and  used  this  term  poetically  only. 

The  term  never  occurs  in  scriptures  prior  to  Moses,  who  has  it 
twice  in  his  last  song,  and  there  it  is  defined  by  the  verb  IHC^J/  "  its 

*     * 

maker,"  its  maternal  power,  while  Ail  is  defined  by  "l??!!!/!^  "  who  has 
begotten  thee,"  the  paternal  power.*  The  term  was  old  in  the  time  of 
Moses.  It  had  become  a  poetical  expression  of  the  Deity,  the  mater- 
nal, soft,  affectionate,  and  mild  power  of  God,  immanent  in  nature, 
revealed  to  man  from  its  periphery.  It  marks  an  epoch  in  natural 
revelation,  which  remained  permanently  in  all  heathenism. 

3.       D*r77i<    ELOHIM. 

With  this  third  name  of  God,  pronounced  Elohim,  we  step  upon 
purely  Hebraic  ground.  Like  the  tetragramraaton,  this  Elohim  or 
Ha-Elohim,  is  Hebrew  exclusively.  It  occurs  most  frequently  in  Holy 
Writ  and  in  connection  with,  or  often  in  place  of,  the  tetragranimaton. 
Neither  of  these  two  names  of  God  occur  in  any  language  besides 
Hebrew. 

The  term  Elohim  contains  the  consonantal  letters  and  the  vowels 
(except  one)  of  both  Ail  and  Elovahh  and  the  additional  Q*  eem,  the 
plural  masculine  ending,  which  shows  distinctly  that  the  word  was 
made  of  the  two  prior  names  of  God.  The  feminine  H  hai  from  Elovahh 
is  retained  and  deposed  by  the  masculine  eein,  to  express  the  mono- 
theistic idea  of  Almightiness,  the  abstract  of  almighty,  the  being  that 
is  the  center  and  fountain  of  all  might,  force,  power,  causation,  and  is 
therefore  the  creator  of  the  All  (Genesis  i,  1)  ;  who  contains  all  ex- 
istent power,  the  masculine  and  the  feminine,  and  every  other  power 
thinkable  or  imaginable,  ])roducing  the  good  here,  evil  there,  and 
both  simultaneously  elsewhere.  And  yet  he  is  not  identical  with 
this  force,  power,  might,  which  we  observe  empirically  from  the  pe- 
riphery of  nature;  he  is  the  abstract  idea  of  all  miglit,  power, 
force,     causation,     he     is     Elohim,    and     that     im    or     eem     as    in 

iSnS  D^Jinx    N*S-  as  also  ortDH").  Dm;^j  Doipr  n'^n,  or 

"IjnX  t*1Xn  'JIN  "IDT,  and  many  similar  passages,  is  the  sign  of  ab- 
straction. It  signifies  "Aliuighliness,"  or  also  the  Almighty  Being 
with  the  prefixed  article  H-  Here  is  the  primitive  Hebrew  idea  of 
God,  a  long  distance  beyond  the  elemental  theo-monism,  a  step  from 

*  See  also  Daniel  xi.  87.     Elovahh  in  apposition  with  D'i^*^  mtDH- 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  13 

the  periphery  to  the  interior  of  nature,  from  elements  and  forces  to 
the  generating  and  moving  soul  of  them.  And  yet  it  is  primitive 
monotheism  only.  It  has  in  common  with  Ail  the  impersonal  and  in- 
definite signification.  It  is  an  appellative  and  no  nomen  propriuvi, 
takes  the  definite  article  and  the  personal  suffixes,  and  is  homonymous 
with  false  gods,  angels,  also  judges  and  rulers.  Like  Ail  it  occurs 
frequently  in  Holy  Writ  to  express  the  idea  of  God  immanent  in  nat- 
ure. Elohim  expresses  a  higher  degree  of  natural  revelation,  as  con- 
ceived primitively  by  the  Hebrew  mind,  or  by  those  bearers  and  ex- 
ponents of  mankind's  traditions,  of  whom  Abraham  only  became 
known  to  posterity.  It  is  the  first  step  above  materialistic  conceptions 
of  primitive  humanity. 

4.       *^"TJ<   ADONAI. 

With  Abraham,  according  to  the  sacred  records,  in  his  old  age, 
natural  revelation  reaches  its  climax  and  transcendental  revelation 
opens  its  cycle.  Abraham  is  the  first  man  on  record  who  proclaimed 
the  name  of  God,  and  proclaimed  him  as  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth 
(Genesis  xxiv,  3)  ;*  th'e  first  who  prayed  to  God,  and  he  prayed  for 
abject  sinners ;  the  first  of  whom  it  is  said  that  God  appeared  to  him ; 
the  first  whom  Holy  Writ  calls  a  prophet,  and  his  contemporaries 
acknowledged  a  prince  of  God.  Either  he  was  himself  the  sublime 
genius  that  lifted  up  his  generation  to  a  cognition  of  God,  man  and 
the  world,  as  recurred  so  often  in  the  world's  history,  or  his  generation 
advanced  rapidly  to  higher  thoughts  and  cognitions,  and  Abraham 
was  the  favorite  of  Providence  that  rescued  his  name  and  fame  from 
oblivion  for  posterity.  It  is  evident  that  a  decided  progress  of  the 
religious  idea  and  the  God-cognition  was  achieved  in  his  days.  The 
century  marks  the  transition  from  the  elemental  to  the  moral  God; 
from  the  God  immanent  in  nature  to  the  God  immanent  also  in  man ; 
from  the  sovereignty  of  power,  wisdom,  dominion  and  fate  to  the 
sittliche  Weltanshauung,  the  ethical  supremacy  of  freedom,  justice  and 
love. 

Abraham  was  the  first  man  to  call  Gad  Adonai,  and  this  is  the 
symbol,  the  ideograph,  of  that  transition  (Genesis  xv.  2,  xviii.  27  sqq.). 
Adonai  contains  in  Hebrew  the  same  vowels  as  Elohim,  with  the  plural 
ending  ai,  to  distinguish  it  from  Adonee — ray  human  master,  ruler, 
governor.  It  is  a  Shemitic  term  Hebraized  on  the  pattern  of  Elohim, 
and  like  it,  it  denotes  the  abstract  lordship,  mastership,  majesty.     It 

*  Siphri,  Haasinu  313  and  Lekach  Tob  ad  locum.  "Before  he  was  made 
known  to  people  he  was  the  God  of  heaven  only ;  after  that,  he  was  the 
God  of  heaven  and  earth." 


14  THEOLOGY. 

follows  in  the  texts  pointed  out,  after  or  with  historical  data,  some- 
thing done  or  being  done  by  God  for  man,  and  is  defined  in  Abraham's 
prayer  for  the  people  of  Sodom  as  "  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,"  who 
punishes  the  wicked,  but  also  spares  the  evil-doers  on  account  of  the 
riorhteous  araonsc  them.  Adonai  is  the  name  of  God  revealed  in  the 
history  of  man,  the  just  and  merciful  ruler.  It  is  the  moral  Lord,  the 
principle  of  Die  Sittliche  Weltordnmig.  It  is  a  great  distance  in  the 
God-cognition  from  the  elemental  God  or  gods,  one  step  higher  than 
the  ElohimAdea,  a  new  revelation  of  the  God  immanent  also  in  human 
nature. 

This  Adonai-\)er\od  marks  the  highest  stage  of  God-cognition  in 
the  pagan  world.  For  Adonai  is  synonymous  with  Adonis,  Baal,  Bel, 
and  Moloch,  anthropomorphous  and  moral  gods,  lords,  kings,  rulers  of 
men,  no  mere  elemental  powers.  Although  the  original  element  of 
mythology  was  retained  in  the  masculine  and  feminine  gods  and  god- 
desses, and  in  the  forms  of  worship,  still  these  humanized  gods  mark 
the  progress  of  the  idea  and  the  highest  ever  reached  by  paganism, 
reached  primarily  by  Shemitic  paganism  only.  The  difference  between 
the  Abrahamitic  Adonai  and  the  heathen  Adonis,  Moloch,  Baal,  is  that 
the  Adonai  is  a  successive  development  from  the  Hebraic  Elohim,  and 
the  heathen  Moloch  and  Baal  are  a  successive  development  from  Ail 
and  Elovahh.  The  Sheraites  had  reached  the  highest  from  their  stand- 
point of  dualism,  so  had  Abraham  reached  the  highest  from  his  stand- 
point of  pure  monotheism.  So  far  natural  revelation  went,  so  far 
human  reason  succeeded  in  the  cognition  of  Deity.  It  never  went 
beyond  it,  as  hiitory  testifies.  Therefore  Abraham  was  prepared  to 
receive  the  revelation  of  God  directly,  the  first  transcendental  lesson 
in  mojiotheistic  theology. 

• 

5.       nC*  ^J^    AIL   SHADDAL 

When  Abraham  was  ninety-nine  years  old,  after  a  long  life  of  con- 
templation and  righteousness,  God  appeared  to  him.  The  Thorah  no- 
tices this  fact  particularly.  God  appeared  to  none  before.  And  God 
himself,  it  is  stated,  said  to  him  :  "  I  am  Ail  Shaddai."  He  had  said 
to  none  before  Abraham,  who  or  what  he  was.  This  is  the  first  direct 
revelation.     Here  begins  the  God  of  revelation. 

The  substance  of  this  revelation  is  in  the  word  Shaddai.  The  Ail 
was  known,  and  is  set  before  Shaddai  to  announce  that  the  one  re- 
vealed now  is  no  other  than  the  one  revealed  originally  to  man.  There- 
fore Shaddai  without  Ail,  esi)ecially  in  the  book  of  Job,  is  a  proper 
name  of  God. 

Ail  signifies  the  mighty  one.      In  the  development  of  the  God- 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  15 

idea  from  All  to  Elohim  it  had  become  the  Almighty  and  Alniightiuess. 
If  Shaddai  siguified  the  same  as  An.,  as  those  suppose  who  derive  it 
from  SHADAD,  it  would  be  a  mere  tautology  aud  no  revelation ;  yet 
Shaddai  evidently  qualifies  Ail. 

In  the  Talmud  it  is  suggested  (Chagigah  12a)  that  *1  dai  is  the 
root  of  Shaddai,  which  was  adopted  by  Septuagint,  Saadia,  Rashi  and 
others.     But  they  do  not  account  for  the  shad. 

There  is  no  reason  discernible  why  Shaddai  should  not  be  the 
nomen  proprium  of  the  Deity,  after  the  form  of  ^'Hti^  "  Sarai"  and  many 
others,  contracted  of  IJi'  and  *1  which  accounts  for  the  dagesh  in  daltth. 
Shad,  like  shadad,  as  in  Shadayim,  signifies  nourishing,  supporting, 
preserving.  The  term  Shaid,  for  evil  demon,  is  of  late  origin,  when 
the  names  of  the  supposed  good  demons  were  changed  into  evil 
ones.      ^1   signifies    sufficient,    superabundant,    more    than    sufficient, 

as  n  »Sd  "1^  nr)"lD  DdS  pnni-  The  AU  Shaddai  signifies  the  Al- 
mighty, self-sufficient  and  self-existent  supporter  and  preserver  of  the 
All.  This  was  an  important  revelation  to  Abraham.  It  imbued  his 
consciousness  with  the  knowledge  that  the  God  of  his  cognition  is 
eternal,  while  all  heathen  gods  were  begotten  and  must  therefore  ha^e 
an  end.  The  world  depends  on  him  for  preservation  aud  support,  and 
he  depends  on  none.  Jle  is  in  this  material  world  as  its  life-principle, 
although  he  is  also  above  and  beyond  it.  He  alone  is  self-sufficient 
and  self-existent.  He  is  Ail  Shaddai.  Adonai  is  God's  name  in  his  re- 
lation to  man  ;  El  Shaddai  is  his  name  in  relation  to  all  nature,  man 
included,  and  as  such  he  is  the  God  of  transcendental  revelation,  not 
reached  by  natural  revelation. 

It  is  evident  from  two  facts  that  Abraham  was  the  recipient  of  the 
Ail  Shaddai.  revelation,  as  maintained  also  by  Moses  (Exodus  vi,  3). 

(a).  The  Ail  Shaddai  occurs  only  in  the  history  of  the  patriarchs 
from  aud  after  Abraham,  and  then  no  more  except  the  Shaddai  absolute 
in  Hagiographa. 

(b).  Names  of  persons  with  the  shaddai  appended,  like  Zurishaddai 
and  Amishaddai  (Numbers  ii,  10,  12.  25).  occur  only  after  the  time  of 
the  patriarchs  up  to  Moses,  and  nowhere  else. 

6.       n*    YAH. 

There  exists  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  Yah,  the  sixth 
holy  name  of  God,  is  an  abbreviation  of  Jehovah.  No  passage  in 
Scriptures  suggests  it.  No  similar  abbreviation  can  be  cited.  It  is 
evident  that  this  name  of  God  originated  among  the  Israelites  in 
Egypt.     It  appears  affixed  to  the  names  of  persons  for  the  first  time 


16  THEOLOGY. 

among  those  who  were  born  in  Egypt,  as  is  evident  from  1  Chronicles 
iv,  19;  V,  4.  24;  vii,  2.  3;  and  then  one  hundred  and  fifteen  times  in 
Scriptures.  Its  origin  must  be  in  Egypt  after  the  death  of  the  patri- 
archs. Right  after  the  exodus  we  find  Yah  in  Exodus  xv,  2  (1^  DD  7^. 
and  before  that  (ibid,  xv,  2)  ,1'  HID'^)  ^t^^  The  latter  shows  that 
Yah  is  no  abbreviation,  for  the  identical  phrase  is  quoted  in  Isaiah 
and  Psalms,  always  with  Yah.  In  this  passage  Yah  saved  Israel  at  the 
Red  Sea,  and  is  placed  in  parallel  with  Ail,  Elohim  and  Jehovah,  hence 
it  is  no  abbreviation  of  either.  Still  more  striking  is  the  fact,  that  in 
Psalms,  wherever  the  poet  sings  of  the  Exodus,  or  the  passage  through 
the  Red  Sea,  as  Psalms  Ixxvii,  12  ;  Ixxxix,  9  ;  cxviii ;  cii,  19 ;  cxxii, 
4 ;  cxxxiv,  4,  or  only  takes  his  metaphors  from  those  events,  he  has 
the  Yah  evidently  as  the  name  of  God  best  known  among  the  people 
coming  from  Egypt. 

The  ancient  Midrash  also  presumes  that  God  was  called  Yah  by 
the  Israelites  in  Egypt.  Bityah,  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  who  mar- 
ried the  Israelite  Mered  (1  Chronicles  iv,  48),  supposed  to  be  identical 
with  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  that  saved  Moses  (Exodus  ii),  embraced 
the  religion  of  the  Israelites,  and  was  therefore  called  H*  DD,  "  Daugh- 
ter of  Yah."    Pirkai  Rahhi  Eliezer,  chap.  48,  and  Rabhah  to  Leviticus  i. 

The  etymology  of  this  divine  name  is  given  nowhere.  In  Arabic 
"  Ya"  is  the  name  of  a  god  in  names  like  Ya-gut  ?.nd  Ya-uk.  "  lo  " 
or  Yo  was  a  Greek  name  for  Isis,  always  without  definition.  We  can 
define  Yah  only  by  inference  from  the  contexts  of  Scriptural  passages 
in  which  it  occurs.     According  to  these  passages — 

Yah  is  the  Life,  D^'H  D^H^NI  WT]  ")1p!2  manifested  in  thhi 
svbbninr  world,  the  source,  hestower  and  protector  of  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual beings  and  of  nations  living  in  constant  co-operation  and  mutual  sup- 
port, like  the  members  of  every  individual  organism.  It  is  the  Ail  Shaddai, 
also,  of  the  nation's  life. 

Yah  is  not  onlv  the  substance  conception  of  Adonai  and  El  Shaddai, 
but  also  the  nation's  life  as  a  nation,  and  as  such  a  higher  step  in  the 
God-cognition  of  the  Hebrews,  from  the  abstract  to  the  substance, 
with  the  sanctification  of  national  life.  If  life  is  the  essence  of 
Deity,  then  His  is  the  power,  the  will,  the  freedom,  the  intellectus, 
and  the  goodness,  for  these  are  the  accidents  of  life  in  all  its  manifes- 
tations,* and  national  existence  is  no  less  divine  than  that  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

'  See  "The  Cosmic  God,"  p.  127  sqq.  In  (loslieu  the  children  of  Israel 
became  a  nation  ;  there  the  revelation  of  God  in  the  life  of  nation  rose  in 


THE   THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  17 

AVe  need,  it  seems,  no  better  proof  of  this  definition  of  Yah  than 
the  closing  verse  of  Psalms :  "Everything  that  hath  breath  (every 
living  being)  praise  Yah,  Halleluyah."  The  reverse  of  this  occurs  in 
Psalm  cxv,  to  which  we  refer  later  on. 

Yah  manifested  in  the  life  of  the  individual  is  clearly  expressed 
in  the  prayer  of  King  Hezekiah  (Isaiah  xxxviii,  11).  He  was  sick, 
recovered,  and  prayed  :  "  I  said  in  the  cutting  off  of  my  days,  I  shall 
go  to  the  gates  of  my  grave.  I  am  deprived  of  the  residue  of  my 
life."     Then  he  continues  thus  : 

"I  said  I  shall. not  see  (again)  Yah, 
Yah  in  the  laud  of  the  living ; 
I  shall  l>ehold  man  no  more 
With  the  inhabitants  of  the  world." 

To  see  Yah  he  must  behold  man  and  the  other  inhabitants  of  the 
world  ;  Yah  is  manifested  in  their  life  only ;  he  could  see  Yah  nowhere 
else,  for  Yah  is  the  source  of  life. 

The  same  idea  is  expressed  in  Psalm  cxviii,  17-19:  "  I  shall  not 
die,  but  live  and  declare  the  works  of  Yah.  Yah  hath  chastised  me 
sore,  but  he  hath  not  given  me  over  unto  death.  Open  to  me  the 
gates  of  righteousness,  I  will  go  into  them  and  I  shall  praise  Yah." 

As  the  life  of  the  nation.  Yah  is  praised  in  Psalm  cxv,  which, 
from  verse  12,  is  a  blessing  to  the  entire  nation.  It  proceeds  (verse 
12)  thus:  "The  heaven  is  Jehovah's  heaven,  and  he  gave  the  earth 
to  the  children  of  man.  The  dead  will  not  praise  Yah,  not  all  those 
that  go  down  to  silence  (defunct  nations).  But  we  will  bless  Yah 
from  now  to  evermore,  Halleluyah." 

The  same  view  of  the  term  Yah  is  expressed  in  the  Talmud, 
Menachoth  29  on  Isaiah  xxvi,  4:  "  For  in  Yah  Jehovah  is  the  rock  of 
eternity  "  (or  of  the  two  worlds)  ;  also  Bereshith  Rabba  9,  and  Yalkut 
in  Tehillim  794  on  Psalm  Ixviii,  5. 

Few  notices  only  reached  us  from  the  centuries  of  Israel's  life  in 
Egypt.  Still  we  know  from  succeeding  history,  that  many  of  the 
children  of  Abraham  preserved  the  sacred  traditions,  and  the  Talmud 
adds  that  there  arose  prophets  among  them  prior  to  Aaron  and  Miriam, 
among  whom  were  also  Kehath  and  Amram.  There  was  a  successive 
revelation  between  Abraham  and  Moses,  for  which  this  sixth  holy 
name  of  God  is  no  mean  evidence.  It  leads  to  the  Yhvh  revelation. 
It  relates  to  Jehovah  like  Ait  to  Elohim. 

their  consciousness,  and  this  consciousness  was  the  primary  cause  of  their 
salvation.     See  Exodus  xv,  2.     — H^^lu^*^    'h   \T1    HV 


18  THEOLOGY. 

7.       mn*  YEHOVAH. 

Yhvh,  the  tetragrammaton,  the  ineffable  and  perfect  nomen  pro- 
prium  of  the  Absolute  and  Only  God  t^m^^DJl  Du'>  engraved  upon 
the  golden  diadem  of  the  high  priest,  is  given  in  Scriptures  to  God 
only.  It  is  the  last  and  highest  of  the  seven  holy  names,  and  contains, 
besides  the  new  revelations,  all  the  revelations  of  Deity  in  the  six  prior 
names  of  God.  Concerning  this  name  of  God,  it  is  reported  in  Ex- 
odus (iii,  15 j  that  the  Almighty  himself  said  :  "  This  is  my  name  for- 
ever, and  this  is  my  memorial  throughout  all  generations."  The 
prophet  Zachariah  expressed  this  revelation  thus  :  "And  Yehovah 
will  be  king  over  all  the  earth,  that  day  Yehovah  will  be  one,  and  his 
name  will  be  cue."  The  Absolute  is  immutable  and  eternal,  so  must 
be  his  name,  if  it  represents  him. 

The  etymology  of  the  tetragrammaton  is  this:  "It  is  purely  He- 
brew. It  is  a  contraction  of  the  consonantal  letters  of  the  three  tenses 
of  the  verb  hawah,  "  to  be,"  viz: 

n^'l'  mn  n^n 

"He  was,  he  is,  he  will  be."  These  are  ten  letters,  viz.,  six  let- 
ters n  hai  re[)resented  in  the  tetragrammaton  by  two  H  hai;  three  *  yud 
represented  in  the  name  by  one,  and  the  one  1  vav  forming  the  nin\ 

The  verb  mil  signifies  to  be,  to  become,  and  to  have.  This  is 
also  the  threefold  signification  of  the  tetragrammaton. 

1.  Yhvii  is  tlie  Absolute  Being,  eternal,  infinite,  unconditioned, 
and  immutable,  all  being  besides  him  is  relative,  finite  in  time  and 
space,  conditioned,  and  mutable.  He  alone  is  self-existent  and  self- 
sufficient  ;  all  other  beings  depend  for  existence  on  son)ething  outside 
of  themselves,  and  are  subject  to  genesis  and  katatesis.  He  is  the 
necessary  existence  (mN*i»*2n  D*in!3),  find  all  things  are  as  long  as 
they  exist,  because  He  is. 

2.  YiiVfi  is  the  Eternal  Becoming,  as  nothing  could  become  from 
any  source  outside  of  the  Absolute  Being.  His  becoming  power  was 
manifested  in  the  creati(m  of  the  world.  All  possibilities  j)otential  in 
the  world  that  have  or  will  become  realities,  were  ideally-actual  in  Inni 
in  all  eternity  and  remain  so  forever,  as  there  can  be  no  increase  or 
decrease  in  the  Absolute.  Being  and  Becoming  are  but  two  aspects 
of  the  absolute  and  necessary  being. 

3.  Yhvii  is  the  absolute  Having.  He  alone  possesses  himself;  no 
relative  being  has  or  possesses  itself;  all  are  possessed  by  something 
outside  of  themselves.  He  possesses  the  All  and  all,  they  were  in 
Him  bclbro  they  were  in  reality  and  remain  in   Him  forever.     He  is 


TIIH    THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  19 

THKI   WD'Cf  tl^p  "  the  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth  "  (Genesis  xiv, 
19),  and  no  finite  being  possesses,  not  even  itself. 

These  three  significations  of  the  verb  correspond  to  the  three 
tenses  represented  in  the  tetragrammaton,  as  revealed  to  Moses  (Ex- 
odus iii,  13-16).  This  is  God  and  none  besides  him.  None  can 
think  or  imagine  a  beiug  higher  than  the  Absolute,  two  or  more  abso- 
lute beings  in  existence,  or  a  world  of  beings  without  the  Absolute  as 
its  cause  or  sustaining  power.  So  far  and  no  further  can  reason  pene- 
trate into  the  mysteries  of  existence. 

The  vocalization  of  the  tetragammaton,  it  is  maintained  by 
Moses  Maimonides  (3Ioreh  Nebuchim,  part  II,  chapters  Ixi  and  Ixii),  was 
forgotten  after  the  destruction  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem.  Leo  di 
Modena,  in  his  Minhaghai  Haqqaraim,  p.  169,  quoted  by  Basnage,  Part 
II,  Books,  §  16,  maintains  that  the  Pharisees  only  forgot  this  vocaliza- 
tion, because  they  would  not  pronounce  the  tetragrammaton  ;  the  Sad- 
ducees  did  pronounce  the  holy  name,  and  did  not  forget  it.  The 
vowel  signs  in  the  Bible,  it  is  further  maintained,  were  originally 
established  by  the  Karaites,  and  they  preserved  the  Sadducean  tradi- 
tions. We  must  add  to  this,  that  the  older  names  of  God  in  Scrip- 
tures, Elohhn,  Elovah,  Adojiai,  are  vocalized  like  Jehovah,  beginning 
with  a  Sheva  and  a  Cholem,  there  is  no  good  reason  to  consider  this 
incorrect  in  -the  tetragrammaton.  Least  justifiable  is  the  form 
Jahve  which  would  make  it  a  Hlphil,  the  verb  havah  in  the  causa- 
tive form,  which  would  make  of  it  "he  who  caused  being,"  and  not 
"  he  who  is  himself  the  being  absolute  and  eternal,"  as  the  prophets 
understood  it  (Isaiah,  xliv,  6  ;  xlviii,  12). 

8.       THE    ATTRIBUTES   OF   GOD. 

Attribute  ("IXIH)  is  any  thing  that  can  be  predicated  of  another,  and 
which  is  inherent  in  its  nature  or  its  substance.  The  Infinite  necessarily 
presents  an  infinite  number  of  attributes,  and  every  one  in  itself  must 
be  infinite.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  the  attributes  of  the  Absolute  can 
not  be  enumerated,  or  any  of  them  defined  in  any  language.  It  is  no 
Jess  evident  that  we  know  the  existence,  substance,  and  nature  of  any 
thing  by  its  attributes.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  we  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  Absolute,  except  by  revelation,  as  is  also  the  case  with  the 
Absolute  or  Infinite  itself.  We  canpredicate  no  more  of  Yhvh  than 
what  He  directly  or  indirectly  revealed  to  Himself. 

To  illustrate  :  The  forces  of  nature,  like  the  mental  qualities  of 
man,  are  unknown  as  to  their  substance.  We  obtain.our  knowledge 
of  them  by  their  manifestations.     Change  the  terra  of  manifestation  to 


20  THEOLOGY. 

revelation — and  they  are  synonymous — and  yoii  will_  feel  convinced 
that  all  we  know  of  the  Absolute  and  His  attributes  we  know  ])y 
revelation. 

Theology  relies  for  its  knowledge  upon  the  universal  knowledge 
of  man — the  four  postulates — and  its  written  or  unwritten  traditions, 
the  knowledge  of  a  large  portion  of  humanity.  The  Theology  of 
Judaism  acknowledges  tlie  Thorah  as  the  repository  of  its  divine 
traditions  ;  therefore  it  can  predicate  of  Yhvh  only  that  which  is 
either  in  the  universal  knowledge  of  man  or  in  the  Thorah,  reported 
there  as  God's  direct  manifestations  of  Himself. 

All  attributes  of  God  are  expressed  in  the  Thorah  in  the  substan- 
tive form,*  because  in  Him  every  thing  is  absolute,  involved  in  the 
substance  and  unity  of  the  necessary  being.     fSo  also  every  attribute 

of  relation  in  the  Thorah  is  a  verbal  noun  (H SlJ/D/l  p  "It^l^  DC*)- 
God  and  His  attributes  are  one.  They  are  expressed  in  the  seven  holy 
names  of  God,  and  then  defined  as  attributes  of  relation  in  his  deal- 
ings with  humanity. 

In  the  seven  names  God  is  revealed  as : 

(a)  The  absolute  and  necessary  existence   (DIK^VD)- 

(b)  The  absolute  oneness  (miH?^)- 

(c)  The  Eternal  (nTHV^T    mOlp)- 

(d)  The  Omnipotence  (D^ID^)- 

(e)  The  Life  (D^^H). 

(f )  The  Intellectus   (n!3Dn). 

(g)  The  Goodness  (n^Jll). 

All  other  substantial  attributes  of  the  Deity,  such  as  infiniteness, 
immutability,  omnipresence,  providence  and  freedom,  are  logically  con- 
tained in  these  seven. 

9.    HOLINESS. 

Between  the  two  kinds  of  attributes  there  is  one  which  character- 
izes especially  the  God  of  revelation  ;  it  appertains  both  to  the  sub- 
stance and  to  the  relation,  nnd  this  is  Holiness.  God  reveals  Himself 
as  t^nip-      "And   the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  saying:  Speak  unto  all 

the  congregation,  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them  :  Ye  shall 
be  (become)  holy,  for  holy  (kados^h)  am  I,  Jehovah,  your  Elohim." 
(Leviticus  xix.)  The  prophet  (Isaiah  vi,  3)  hears  the  Seraphim  on 
high  praise  the  Lord  as  threefold  holy,  which  is  to  express  the  idea  of 
most  holy,  holiness  inexpressible  in  hum-an  language.     This  attribute 

•  Compare  also  I  Chronicles  xxiv,  10-12,  the  grand  benediction  of  Kinj^ 
David. 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    JUDAISM.  21 

of  holiness  recurs  continually  in  Holy  Writ,  and  always  in  the  sub- 
stantive form  of  KADOSH,  and  not  in  the  adjective  form  of  kodesh, 
after  this  special  revelation  to  Moses.  By  this  attribute  of  holiness 
the  God  of  revelation  is  distinguished  from  all  gods  and  God-ideas  in 
the  theology  of  the  world.  It  represents  Jehovah  as  the  highest  ideal 
of  moral  perfection,  and  it  is  made  incumbent  upon  the  congregation 
of  the  children  of  Israel  to  become  holy,  morally  perfect.  Here  is 
the  foundation  of  Yhvh  ethics,  which  was  known  to  Israel  only.  The 
term  kadosh  is  the  predicate  of  a  being,  in  which  all  moral  excellencies 
in  the  highest  degree  are  united,  and  this  is  moral  perfection. 

Holiness  signifies  not  only  to  abhor  the  vicious,  wicked,  and  false, 
but  also  to  love  the  True  and  the  Good,  because  they  are  true  and 
good ;  it  is  the  generic  term  of  utmost  goodness,  including  justice, 
mercy,  benevolence,  the  delight  in  the  practice  per  se  of  all  which  is 
good,  true,  and  pure,  and  the  abhorrence  of  the  opposite  thereof. 

10.     yhvh's  attributes  of  relation. 

These  are  revealed  in  the  Decalogue  and  specified  in  the  direct 
revelation  to  Moses  recorded  in  Exodus  xxxiv,  5-10. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  covenant  of  God  with  Israel  as  a 
people  and  a  revelation  of  the  conditions  contained  in  the  Decalogue 
to  be  fulfilled  by  the  covenant  people,  they  rebelled,  violated  the  main 
condition  of  the  covenant  by  making  and  worshiping  a  god  besides 
Yhvh,  and  forfeited  their  national  existence,  their  "ornament 
from  Mount  Horeb"  (ibid,  xxxiii,  6)  in  the  opinion  and  belief  of 
Moses.  Therefore  he 'broke  the  two  tables  of  stone,  as  the  contract 
was  broken,  and  moved  his  tent  from  the  camp,  as  they  were  a  cove- 
nant nation  no  longer.  God,  however,  it  is  recorded  there,  pardoned 
also  this  rebellious  transgression,  and  renewed  his  covenant  with 
Israel  under  the  same  conditions.  Moses  could  not  understand  how 
the  great  God  of  justice,  of  righteousness,  the  sovereign  Adonai,  "  the 
judge  of  all  the  earth,"  should  thus  deal  with  a  nation,  and  he  prayed, 
"  Let  me  know  thy  glory,  let  me  know  thy  ways,  I  beseech  thee,  that 
I  may  know  thee,  and  that  I  may  find  grace  in  thine  eyes ; "  or  in 
other  words,  "  that  I  may  know  how  thou,  God,  governest  nations, 
and  by  doing  as  thou  doest,  find  favor  before  thee."  God  answered 
his  supplication  thus,  "I  will  cause  all  my  goodness  to  pass  before 
thee,  and  I  will  proclaim  (fully  expound)  the  name  of  Yhvh  before 
thee,  how  1  am  beneficent  to  whom  I  am  beneficent  and  merciful  to 
whom  I  am  merciful."  (ibid,  xxxiii,  19.)  Therefore  he  received 
the  direct  revelation,  what  Yhvh  as  the  eternal  Ail,  immanent  in 


22  xnRor.OGY. 

nature  and  man,  is  to  all  human  beings  especially  (ibid,  xxxiv,  5,  sqq.)- 
He  is  : 

1.  The  True  and  Incomparable  Love — love  without  any  motive 
aside  of  his  own  nature,  which  is  the  superlative  of  grace  and  truth. 

Language  has  no  adequate  term  to  express  the  love  of  God,  which 
is  so  entirely  different  from  what  man  calls  love;  therefore  Scriptures 
employed  five  different  terms  to  express  it  approximately. 

Love  is  first  a  sentiment,  a  feeling  of  kindly  sympathy  for  any 
being  whose  nearness  pleases  and  delights  us.  This  is  expressed  in 
Eachum'-^  (Dllll).  Mercy  is  but  one  side  of  Radium  and  signifies  that 
kindly  sympathy  for  the  object  of  our  love  in  a  state  of  suffering; 
liachum  signifies  the  constancy  of  that  sympathy  under  all  conditions. 

Love  is  secondly  a  desire  to  sustain,  support,  and  to  make  happy 
the  object  of  our  sympathy  in  exact  ratio  to  this  sympathy.  This  is 
expressed  in  Chanun  (p^H),  the  benevolent,  beneficent  bestower  of 
all  which  gives  sustenance,  support,  and  happiness  to  the  beings  of 
His  sympathy. 

Love,  in  the  third  place,  is  that  unshaken  and  never-failing  fidel- 
ity which  adheres  steadfastly  to  the  object  of  its  sympathy  and  never 
withdraW'S  from  it  its  benevolent  beneficence,  however  it  fails,  falls,  de- 
generates, until  it  becomes  necessary  to  heal  the  fallen  man  by  the 
infliction  of  punishment,  and  then  it  is  done  with  sincere  sorrow  and 
regret.  This  is  God's  "  long  suffering"  (D'3N  "]"){<)•  He  abandons 
not  the  fallen  sinner,  individual,  or  nation  ;  permits  not  the  consequence 
of  sin — wiiich  is  punishment — to  overwhelm  the  sinner  instantly,  but 
affords  him  time  for  self-correction. f 

All  this  kindly  sympathy,  benevolent  beneficence,  and  never-fail- 
ing fidelity,  which  are  the  three  elements  of  love,  can  only  then  be 
called  divine  if  the  motive  is  pure  goodness,  unselfish,  "  free  of  every 
expectation  and  possibility  of  recompense."  Such  is  the  motive  of 
Yhvh's  love.  He  is  the  Supreme  Goodness,  the  "IDH  D"l  "Supreme 
Grace  ;"  love  is  the  attribute  of  his  nature. 

In  the  term  "long  suffering"  there  is  involved  the  idea  of  pun- 
ishment, which  would  seem  contradictory  to  the  supreme  love;  this, 
however,  is  not  the  case  if  the  punishment  is  intended  for  correction. 
Therefore   this  revelation    continues,    Ynvii   is  Ht^N  D"1   "Supreme 

*  RiicJiinn  in  other  Shetnitic  laiipuajrcH  Ki<rnifio8  "love,"  and  appears  in 
Holy  Writ  always  in  this  si^jnification  as  mercy,  sympathy,  or  the  like. 

t  So  tills  divine  attribntf  is  dcfiiicMl  in  Proverbs  xiv,  17.  29 ;  Psalms  xxv, 
xxxii.  11.  Ixxxvi,  ciii,  oxlv  ;  Isaiali  Iv,  (i-lO;  .leremiali  iv,  1.  2  ;  Ezekiel  xviii ; 
Hosoaxvi;  .Tonah  ill,  iv  ;  Micah  vii,  lS-20;  Talmud  in  Sanhedrin,p.  Ill, 
and  elsewhcrf . 


THK    THEOLOGY    OF   JUDAISM.  23 

Truth,"  truthfulness  and  justice,  which  is  also  an  attribute  of  his 
nature.  Sins  must  be  punished,  wrongs  must  be  rigiiied,  God's  hiw 
must  be  enforced  and  sustained  for  the  preservation  of  mankind  and 
the  benefit  of  the  individual.  But  all  punishment  inflicted  on  the 
transgressor  is  at  the  same  time  from  the  motive  of  Supreme  Grace  as 
it  is  from  Supreme  Truth.  So  this  fifth  term  complements  the  defini- 
ti<tn  of  the  divine  love,  for  wiiich  language  has  no  word. 

2.  Yhvh's  Supreme  Love  and  Trntli  revealed  in  the  life  of  na- 
tions, in  the  process  of  history,  is  the  object  of  the  second  part  of  this 
revelation. 

A  nation  is  a  complex  or  association  of  human  beings.  It  must 
exist,  develop,  and  prosper  under  the  laws  of  a  God  as  physical  nature 
does,  and  stand  the  evil  consequences  of  a  deviation  from  these  laws. 
These  evil  consequences  are  afiliction,  decline,  and  death.  Nations 
die  of  their  own  sins.  Mau  is  a  free  agent,  hence  he  may  sin,  deviate 
from  the  straight  path  of  God's  law,  and  this  possibility  must  be  in- 
cluded in  God's  law.  Nations  are  composed  of  many  such  free  indi- 
viduals; hence  nations  may  sin,  deviate  from  the  straight  line  of  God's 
law,  and  run  themselves  to  misery  and  self-destruction,  if  no  remedy 
were  provided  in  God's  law,  as  was  then  the  case  with  Israel  making 
and  worshiping  the  golden  calf.  Therefore  this  revelation  of  God's 
attributes  announces  that  Yhvh  "  pardons  (or  rather  bears  with)  in- 
iquity, transgression,  and  sin,"  as  outlined  already  in  his  attribute  of 
"  long  suftering,"  although  "  he  makes  no  sinner  guiltless;  "  the  sinner 
himself  must  eradicate  cause  and  effect  of  his  sins,  urged  to  this  by 
punishment  or  by  his  own  voluntary  action.  So  God's  love  deals  also 
with  the  nations.  He  bears  or  forbears  their  iniquities,  transgressions, 
and  sins,  and  cleanses  none  of  his  sins  who  does  not  cleanse  himself. 
How  does  God's  love  bear  or  forbear  the  sins  of  nations?  In  reply 
thereto  this  revelation  announces  a  law  of  history,  a  law  from  the  code 
of  Providence,  which  affords  an  insight  into  the  mvstery  of  man's  ex- 
istence and  progress  in  this  world,  notwithstanding  the  numerous  mis- 
takes, sins,  and  transgressions  committed,  and  notwithstanding  the 
holiness  and  justice  of  God.     This  law  is: 

The  Good  and  the  True  existing  in  man,  or  evolved  by  man  in  the 
course  of  his  history  under  the  love  of  God,  remains  forever  imperish- 
able, iudestructible,  and  un forgotten,  and  increases  in  quantity  and 
quality  as  the  historical  process  goes  on,  as  this  revelation  announces 
"  He  preserveth  grace  (the  Giwd  and  the  True)  to  the  thousandth 
generation,"  i.  e.,  forever.  On  the  other  hand,  the  opposite  of  the 
True  and  the  Good — evil,  wickedness,  and  all  that  is  nugatory  to 
mankind,  produced   by  "the   iniquity  of   the   fathers"  by  deviation 


24  THEOLOGY. 

from  the  straight  line  of  God's  law,  with  its  evil  effects  upon  human- 
ity— will  perish  and  not  reach  beyond  the  third  or  fourth  generation 
of  those  w'ho  hate  God.  He,  by  a  peculiar  arrangement  of  trans- 
piring facts,  neutralizes  the  effects  produced  by  the  evil  doers,  so  that 
they  can  not  reach  beyond  the  third  or  fourth  generation.  So  God's 
love  is  manifested  and  actualized  in  the  life  of  nations  as  well  as  in- 
dividuals. 

This  involves  the  doctrine  of  man's  perfectibility,  and  the  visions 
of  Israel's  prophets  who  saw  the  golden  age  with  all  its  glory  in  the 
distant  future,  when  the  True  and  the  Good  will  have  grown  to  be  the 
sovereign  power  of  humanity. 

The  same  law  governs  also  the  individual  man.  God's  love  neu- 
tralizes for  the  penitent  sinner  the  effects  of  his  sins  and  transgres- 
sions by  a  peculiar  arrangement  of  transpiring  facts,  as  Joseph  verily 
said  to  his  j)eniteut  brothers  (Genesis  1,  19.  20).  A  very  large  num- 
ber of  men  inherit  the  iniquities  of  their  fathers,  their  diseases  of  body 
and  mind,  their  oppressive  institutions  and  laws,  their  errors  and  ig- 
norance. Still  all  those  evils  remain  unremedied  with  those  only  who 
hate  God  (Exodus  xx,  5),  who  stubbornly  refuse  to  see  and  embrace 
the  True  and  the  Good  before  them,  and  even  then  the  evil  eflTect 
reaches  not  beyond  the  fouith  generation.  This  is  the  most  intelligi- 
ble revelation  of  God  as  Supreme  Goodness. 

This  is  Israel's  God-cognition  with  its  genesis  in  natural  and  tran- 
scendental revelation.  It  is  the  highest  known  to  man,  the  utmost 
reason  could  comprehend.  It  is  the  immoval)le  groundwork  of  all  the- 
ology, hence  also  the  Theology  of  Judaism.  Whatever  doctrine,  pre- 
cept, dogma,  or  canon  rises  logically  from  this  principle,  is  a  legiti- 
mate part  of  the  system.  Again,  whatever  theory  or  practice  ig  con- 
trary or  contradictory  to  Israel's  God-cognition  can  have  no  place  in 
the  Theology  of  Judaism.     It  comprises  necessarily  : 

1.  The  doctrine  concerning  Providence,  its  relations  to  the  indi- 
vidual, the  nation,  and  mankind.  This  includes  the  doctrine  of  cove- 
nant between  God  and  man,  God  and  the  fathers  of  the  nation,  God 
and  the  people  of  Israel,  or  the  election  of  Israel. 

2.  The  doctrine  concerning  Atonement.  Are  sins  expiated,  for- 
given, or  pardoned,  and  which  are  the  conditions  or  means  for  such 
expiation  of  sins? 

3.  This  leads  us  to  the  doctrine  of  Divine  Worship  generally,  its 
obligatory  nature,  its  proper  means  and  forms,  its  subjective  or  objec- 
tive import,  which  includes  also  the  precepts  concerning  holy  seasons, 
holy  places,  holy  convocations,  and  consecrated  or  specially  appointed 
persons  to  conduct  such  divine  worship,  and   the  standard  to  distin- 


th:^  theology  of  Judaism.  25 

guish  conscientiously  in  the  Thorah  tlie  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances 
which  were  originally  intended  to  be  always  obligaiory,  from  those 
which  were  originally  intended  for  a  certain  time  and  ])lace,  and  under 
special  circumstances. 

4.  The  doctrine  concerning  the  Human  Will ;  is  it  free,  condi- 
tioned or  controlled  by  reason,  taith,  or  any  other  agency  ?  This  in- 
cludes the  postulate  of  ethics, 

5.  The  Duty  and  Accountability  of  Man  in  all  his  relations  to 
God,  man,  and  himself,  to  his  nation  and  its  government,  and  to  the 
whole  of  the  human  family.  This  includes  the  duty  we  owe  to  the 
past,  to  that  which  the  process  of  history  developed  and  established. 

6.  This  leads  to  the  doctrine  concerning  the  future  of  Mankind, 
the  ultimate  of  the  historical  process,  to  culminate  in  a  higher  or  lower 
status  of  humanity.  This  includes  the  question  of  perfectibility  of 
human  nature  and  the  possibilities  it  contains,  which  establishes  a 
standard  of  duty  we  owe  to  the  future. 

7.  The  doctrine  concerning  personal  immortality,  future  reward 
and  punishment,  the  means  by  which  such  immortality  is  attained, 
the  condition  on  which  it  depends,  what  insures  reward  or  punish- 
ment. 

The  Theology  of  Judaism  as  a  systematic  structure  must  solve 
these  problems  on  the  basis  of  Israel's  God-cognition.  This  being  the 
highest  in  man's  cognition,  the  solution  of  all  problems  upon  this  basis, 
ecclesiastical,  ethical,  or  eschatological,  must  be  final  in  theology,  pro- 
vided the  judgment  which  leads  to  this  solution  is  not  erroneous.  An 
erroneous  judgment  from  true  antecedents  is  possible.  In  such  cases 
the  first  safeguard  is  an  appeal  to  reason,  and  the  second,  though  not 
secondary,  is  an  appeal  to  Holy  Writ  and  its  best  commentaries. 
Wherever  these  two  authorities,  reason  and  Holy  Writ,  agree,  that  the 
solution  of  any  problem  on  the  basis  of  Israel's  God-cognition  is  cor- 
rect, certitude  is  established,  the  ultimate  solution  is  found. 

This  is  the  structure  of  a  systematic  theology.  Israel's  God- 
cognition  is  the  substratum,  the  substance;  Holy  Writ  and  the  stand- 
ard of  reason  are  the  desiderata,  and  the  faculty  of  reason  is  the  ap- 
paratus to  solve  the  problems  which  in  their  unity  are  the  Theology 
of  Judaism,  higher  than  which  none  can  be. 


26  THEOLOGY. 


SYLLABUS  OF  A  TREATISE  ON  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
RELIGIOUS  IDEAS  IN  JUDAISM  SINCE  MOSES  MEN- 
DELSOHN. 

By  G.  GOTTHEIL,  D.D. 


A  development  of  the  ideas  of  Judaism  took  place,  aud  could 
take  place  only,  where  the  principle  of  reform  was  recognized.  Else- 
where stability  reigns.  True  men's  views  do  change  in  course  of 
time  malgre  eux,  and  by  degrees  imperceptible  to  themselves ;  just  as 
their  daily  habits  and  modes  of  life  change  without  their  being  aware 
of  it.  Notably  in  a  century  like  ours,  that  witnessed  so  many  and  so 
wide  departures  from  received  ideas,  it  is  not  within  nature  that  men's 
minds  should  remain  unaffected.  Freedom  of  thought  and  of  speech, 
now  conceded  by  all  civilized  governments,  engenders  a  critical  spirit. 
Old  beliefs  and  institutions  are  challenged  as  to  their  right  of  continu- 
ance ;  their  defense  compels  investigations  by  pei'sons  who,  but  for  this 
exigency,  would'  never  have  thought  of  them ;  and  researches  of  that 
kind  rarely  leave  men  exactly  where  they  found  them.  Even  that 
bulwark  of  stability,  the  Roman  Church,  now  recognizes  the  spirit  of 
the  time,  and  her  present  ruler  earns  general  praise  for  the  skill  with 
which  he  steers  his  ship  bel'ore  the  winds,  and  makes  them  swell  his 
sails  and  bear  him  forward. 

In  theory,  the  orthodox  Jew,  or,  at  least,  his  spokesman,  repudi- 
ates all  ideas  of  change  ;  but  in  reality,  he  is  no  more  in  all  things  like 
his  forefather  of  a  century  ago  than  Maimonides  was  like  Hillel,  or, 
for  the  matter  of  that,  as  Mendelsohn  was  like  that  great  light  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

Still,  these  moldings  by  the  silent  but  potent  hnnd  of  time  can 
not  be  called  developments.  They  load  to  no  conceptions  recognized 
as  new,  result  in  no  fresh  statements  of  old  truths,  and  are  allowed  no 
practical  influence  on  the  relisrious  life  of  the  community.  There  is 
no  definite  goal  before  the  mind's  eye  toward  which  its  enerfrios  are 
bent;  on  the  contrary,  all  desire  to  change  is  stoutly  denied,  whilst  in 
the  case  of  a  development  the  alteration  is  the  verv  thina-  aimed  at. 
The  old.  admitted  as  no  longer  adequate  to  the  needs  of  the  present, 
shall  make  room  for  the  new.  No  breach  with  the  past  is  intended  ; 
only  an  adjustment  of  both  doctrine  and   life  to  the  undeniable  and 


DEVELOl'MEN'T    OF    RELIGIOUS   IDEAS   IN   JUDAISM.  27 

not  unwelcome  facts  before  us,  lest  these  facts  ride  over  us  aiul  crush 
us  out  of  existence. 


Reformed  Judaism  origiuated  in  Germany,  and  is  still  found  in 
those  countries  only  to  which  German  Israelites  have  carried  it. 
Practically,  all  \y astern  Jews  are  alike  in  regard  to  the  observance  of 
the  rituals,  but  by  none  except  Germans  has  the  attempt  been  made 
to  legalize  their  derelictions.  The  reform  of  Synagogue-worship  in 
England  lias  been  feeble  from  the  start,  and  has  gained  no  strength 
during  the  fifty  years  that  have  elapsed  since.  In  other  countries,  not 
even  these  weak  beginnings  were  made. 

In  saying  Germans,  we  disregard  political  limits  and  include  in 
their  number  Germans  living  in  Austria,  Hungarv,  and  other  countries. 


But  it  was  not  given  to  the  Germans  in  Europe  to  carry  to  their 
full  fruition  the  principles  they  had  formulated,  and  to  gather  the 
prizes  of  their  hard-won  victories.  A  political  reaction  set  in,  too 
well  known  for  needing  description,  that  chilled  their  ardor — nay, 
made  all  further  progress  impossible.  Governments  frowned  upon  all 
things  liberal,  reformed  congregations  had  to  use  the  greatest  circum- 
spection to  save  their  synagogues  from  being  closed  by  the  police  ;  anti- 
Semitism  began  to  rage  and  to  re-enact  scenes  of  ages  commonly 
called  dark.  Fanatics  in  our  own  orthodox  ranks  cried:  "Behold 
now  the  fruit  of  your  vaunted  progress,  the  idol  to  whom  you  sacri- 
ficed our  laws  and  time-honored  usages!  You  might  indeed  liberalize 
your  faith  and  your  services,  but  you  can  not  liberalize  the  people 
around  you,  nor  prevent  s-tatecraft  on  the  one  hand  and  demagogism 
on  the  other  from  using  you  for  their  own  political  ends,  by  making 
once  more  your  name  a  hissing  and  a  by-word."  No  wonder  the  Ger- 
man Reformer  lost  heart ;  no  wonder  his  heart  sank.  The  disenchant- 
ment was  all  too  cruel.  Amidst  the  general  discouragement,  all  they 
could  do  was  to  try  and  save  what  had   so  far  been  gained  f)r  better 

days  to  come. 

Ideas  need  for  their  development  free  air,  a  buoyant,  hopeful 
spirit,  and  a  sense  of  security.  These  elements  America  offered,  and 
hither  came  men  that  stood  high  in  the  counsels  of  the  German  Reform- 
ers, men,  moreover,  whose  learning  and  fervent  spirit  fitted  them  well 
for  the  pioneer's  peculiar  task.  Most  of  their  number  have  now  gone  to 
their  reward  ;  but  their  work  lives  after  them.  It  has  prospered  and 
spread  to  almost  every  state  of  the  Union,  and  is  steadily  putting  forth 
new  strength.  It  shall  not  be  denied  that  a  good  pruning  of  some 
■wild  shoots  is  necessary.     The  zeal  of  the  younger  generation  of  lead- 


28  THEOLOGY. 

ers  is  not  always  according  to  knowledge ;  it  is  apt  to  run  to  extremes 
and  to  do  things  which  will  have  to  be  undone  again.  But,  taking  all 
in  all,  the  Reform  Congregations  of  the  United  States  may  claim  to 
have  continued  the  work  begun  some  seventy  years  ago  in  Germany, 
but  interrupted  by  adverse  circumstances,  and  to  have  carried  that 
work  forward  to  permanent  results. 


In  the  designation  Post-Meudelsohnian,  "post"  means  also 
"propter."  It  was  that  gentle  yet  forceful  spirit  that  sent  the  first 
rays  of  light  into  the  darkness  which  had  settled,  for  centuries  past, 
over  the  Jews  and  their  religion.  He  knocked  at  the  door  of  the 
Jewish  mind,  barred  and  bolted  against  all  intrusion,  and,  although 
his  rap  was  of  the  gentlest,  it  could  not  be  overheard,  nor  be  left 
without  some  response.  Here  and  there  a  sleeper  awoke  and  (to  use 
Graetz's  graphic  phrase)  rubbed  his  eyes,  and,  looking  about,  asked 
himself:  "  Where  am  I  ?"  "  What  am  I  ?  "  "  Why  am  I  in  this 
slough  of  ignorance  and  social  abasement  ?  "  Mendelsohn  was,  as  it 
were,  the  living,  the  visible  proof  that  a  strict  observer  of  the  Law,  a 
"Talmudjude,"  may  be  a  modern  man  in  thought,  in  literature,  in  so- 
cial intercDurse,  may  even  take  rank  amongst  the  recognized  leaders 
in  philosophy  and  literature.  Like  Maimouides,  he  appeared  at  the 
threshold  of  a  new  era,  fettered  in  his  religious  practice,  but  liberated 
in  his  philosophical  thought.  Yet,  although  he,  in  his  winning  per- 
sonality, could  unite  and  harmonize  the  two,  the  conflict,  as  far  as  the 
people  at  large  were  concerned,  was  inevitable.  Mendelsohn  pleading 
for  the  civil  emancipation  of  the  Jews  had  to  urge  the  Jews  themselves 
to  acquire  the  speech,  the  manners,  the  culture  of  their  surroundings. 
Was  it  possible  for  his  people  to  listen  to  him,  and  yet  carry  the 
whole  weight  of  the  rabbinical  Law  with  them  ?  It  was  not  long  before 
that  question  came  to  the  front,  and  was  openly  answered  in  the 
negative. 

This  explains  the  nature  of  the  German  Reform  movement.  It 
did  not  begin  as  a  revolt  from  ecclesiastical  oppression  ;  it  was  not  a 
deflection  from  the  faith  on  which  the  synagogue  is  built ;  it  was 
life  itself  that  demanded  relief.  Problems  more  vital  far  and  deeper 
soon  came  to  the  surface.  The  Israelite  should  not  be  placed  in  the 
dilemma  of  either  foregoing  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  civil  rights  or 
forswearing  his  religion,  but  just  as  little  should  he  profess  doctrines 
or  practice  rites  which  he  had  ceased  to  believe  in,  or  which  conflicted 
with  his  own  widened  sentiments.  The  following  was  the  form  in 
which  the  last  aim  of  the  movement  was  mostly  expressed  : 

"  Den    innern   Glauben   mit  dem   Jiussern   Bekenntniss   und  der 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    KEDIGIOUS    IDEAS    IX    JUDAISM.  29 

religiusen  Uebuug  in  Einklaiig  zu   briugeu  und  das  Leben  mit  der 
Reli2:ion  zu  versohuen." 

A  great  uudertakiug,  truly,  especially  when  dealing  with  a  faith 
as  old,  as  complex,  as  dearly  bought,  and  as  completely  identified 
with  the  whole  life  of  its  professors,  as  Judaism.  But  the  brave  re- 
formers did  not  shrink  from  it.  With  a  heroic  faith  in  the  vitality  of 
their  religion,  they  addressed  themselves  to  their  task  and  faced  the 
storm  which  their  declaration  provoked  from  the  defenders  of  the  es- 
tablished church. 


The  beginning  was  made,  as  was  natural,  with  the  question  of 
authority  in  Judaism.  Bible  and  Talmud,  or  rather  the  codes  into 
which  the  multitudinous  laws  deduced  from  them  had  been  petrified, 
held  undisputed  sway.  The  Reformers  did  not  deny  it.  Their  first  propo- 
sitions were  still  discussed  on  that ;  the  written  and  the  oral  Law  were 
invoked  by  both,  advocates  of  reform  and  opponents.  The  abrogation 
of  a  ritual,  the  change  of  a  prayer,  the  use  of  the  vernacular  in  wor- 
ship, the  introduction  of  the  organ  into  the  synagogue,  and  similar  in- 
novations, were  debated,  not  on  their  own  merits,  but  on  the  grounds 
of  existing  legislation.  As  a  matter  of  course  the  advantage  was 
with  the  orthodox.  So,  by-and-by,  the  right  of  the  Talmud  or  oral 
traditions  to  dominate  all  succeeding  generations  was  challenged,  and 
then  denied.  One  of  the  strongest  arguments  for  this  dethronement 
was  the  charge,  not  a  new  one,  that  the  oral  Law  obscured  the  light 
of  the  revealed  Law,  nay,  is  often  found  to  contradict  the  clearest 
teachings  of  the  latter.  For  the  sake  of  restoring  the  Torah  to  its 
legitimate  right  as  the  only  true  word  of  God,  the  Talmud  had  to 
recede.  But  this  restitution  did  not  last  long  ;  for  it  was  soon  observed, 
as  people  began  to  codify  the  Mosaic  Laws,  that  many  of  them  were 
just  as  inapplicable  to  our  time  and  condition  and  often  as  contrary 
to  our  present  ideas  as  most  of  the  rabbinical  enactments;  and,  fur- 
thermore, that  those  usages  that  might  still  be  observed,  needed  tra- 
dition for  their  interpretation  and  application.  At  that  stage  Spinoza's 
distinction  between  the  political  and  moral  parts  of  the  Law  was  recalled 
and  insisted  upon.  The  former  by  their  very  nature  must  be  subject 
to  changes,  and  could,  therefore,  never  have  been  intended  by  their 
author  as  binding  for  all  times;  the  latter  only  might  be  so  considered 
and  accepted  as  the  abiding  doctrine  of  Judaism  and  the  ground-work 
of  its  theology.  In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  critical  or  historical 
school  of  Bible  students  had  arisen,  with  its  theory  of  a  gradual  evo- 
lution of  the  Hebrew  literature.  Shunned  and  even  ridiculed  at  first, 
that  view  gradually  gained  the  scholar's  ear,  and  many  of  the  Jewish 


30  THEOLOGY. 

reformers  openly  avowed  their  acceptance  of  the  new  method  of 
"  Tonihstiidium."  The  Scriptures  themselves,  then,  became  part  of 
Jewisli  tradition;  in  point  of  time,  the  oral  record  preceded  the  writ- 
ten even  from  the  beginning;  all  Judaism,  from  first  to  last,  is  the 
product  of  the  Jewish  mind,  or,  to  use  the  phrase  now  in  vogue — of 
the  peculiar  genius  of  the  Jews  for  the  religious  life.  The  adoption 
of  that  view  was  and  is  of  the  utmost  moment  to  the  Reformer  ;  for 
it  puts  an  end  tn  all  discussions  as  to  his  right  of  changing  the  trans- 
mitted forms  of  worship  or  stating  anew  the  ancient  principles  of 
faith.  If  all  came  from  the  people,  to  the  people  belongs  the  rule  over 
it,  if  the  experiences,  the  trials,  the  triumphs,  and  defeats  of  the  na- 
tion furnished  the  training  by  which  the  native  endowment  of  the 
Hebrew  mind  was  educated  for.its  peculiar  mission  to  the  world — that 
training  has  never  ceased  and  should,  therefore,  produce  new  results. 
Verbal  revelations  were  no  longer  received,  prophets  fell  silent,  when 
the  days  for  that  mode  of  teaching  passed  away;  but  neither  revela- 
tion itself,  nor  prophesying  itself,  can  have  vanished  from  the  Hebrew 
mind.  What  was  true  of  the  spirit  once,  is  true  of  it  always  ;  if  men 
concede  a  Divine  economy  in  the  unique  guidance  of  Israel,  that 
economy  must  contiuue  as  long  as  that  guidance  preserves  its  char- 
acter. Hence,  concludes  the  modern  Reformer,  the  duty  rests  upon 
us  to  give  our  ear  to  what  God  is  still  revealing  to  us,  to  try  to  un- 
derstand it,  and  lay  it  to  heart,  and  to  withhold  it  from  no  one  that 
would  listen  to  us.  This  principle  adopted,  we  are  no  longer  answer- 
able because  we  still  hold  to  the  Old  Testament,  for  every  thing  the 
book  contains  concerning  the  nature  of  God,  or  His  providence,  or 
His  justice,  or  in  regard  to  the  soul,  or  our  duties  to  men,  or  the 
rights  of  the  Gentiles,  and  so  forth  ;  we  place  these  things  at  their 
historical  value.  Neither  can  they  hinder  us  from  receiving  liglit  and 
inspiration  from  other  sources.  All  our  literature  is  for  guidance,  not 
for  dominion  over  tiie  spirit.  The  following  are  the  most  essential 
changes  in  the  tenets  of  Judaism  that  have  come  to  pass  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Reform  principles. 

1.  The  Unity  of  God,  that  chief  corner-stone  of  Judaism,  is  con- 
ceived of  more  in  its  inclusive  than  exclusive  bearing;  it  is  no  longer, 
as  it  has  been,  a  cause  of  separation  and  estrangement  from  people  of 
other  faiths,  but  the  opposite,  a  stimulus  for  seeking  their  fellowship 
and  co-operation  in  all  things  good,  true,  and  right.  Faith  in  the  One 
Fatiier  in  Heaven  imposes  upon  us  the  obligation  to  bring  all  his  hu- 
man children  into  the  bond  of  one  common  brotherhood.  Rituals  in- 
tended exclusively  to  keep  the  Jew  apart  from  his  environments  we 
abamlon  for  th:it  very  reason  ;  all  traces  of  hostility  to  any  one  section 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS    IN    JUDAISM.  31 

of  raaukiml,  no  matter  what  their  religion,  no  matter  what  justifica- 
tion the  compilers  of  our  liturgies  had  when  they  called  for  vengeance 
on  their  persecutors,  are  expunged  from  our  prayers  and  hymns. 

2.  The  idea  of  a  "chosen  people"  has  for  us  no  other  meaning 
than  that  of  a  people  commissioned  to  do  a  certain  work  amongst 
men  ;  it  implies,  in  our  sense,  no  inherent  superiority  of  race  or  de- 
scent, least  of  all  preference  and  favoritism  in  heaven.  The  word  that 
came  from  the  Jewish  mind  thousands  of  years  ago,  "  God  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons,"  is  not  contravened  by  us  either  in  our  belief  or  in 
our  prayers,  or  in  our  feelings  toward  non-Jews;  and  that  other  word 
from  the  same  source,  "Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  forbids  us  to 
countenance  the  least  restriction  of  right  or  of  duty  based  on  a  differ- 
ence of  race,  station,  culture,  or  religion.  Whatever  there  is  yet  in 
our  liturgies  or  in  our  ceremonials,  even  if  it  only  seems  to  conflict 
with  that  great  truth,  will  disappear  when  the  new  Order  of  Service, 
now  in  preparati(jn,  shall  become  the  accepted  ritual  expression  of  the 
Reformed  Judaism  in  America. 

3.  Palestine  is  venerable  to  us  as  the  ancient  home  of  our  race, 
the  birthplace  of  our  faith, .the  land  where  our  seers  saw  visions  and 
our  bards  sang  their  holy  hymns ;  but  it  is  no  longer  our  country  in 
the  sense  of  ownership,  ancient  or  prospective;  that  title  appertains  to 
the  land  of  our  birtli  or  adoption  ;  and  "  our  nation"  is  that  nation  of 
which  we  form  a  part,  and  with  the  destinies  of  which  we  are  identi- 
fied, to  the  exclusion  of  all  others.  Israel  is  a  religious  community 
only;  even  the  feeling  of  identity  of  race  is  weakening.  Restoration 
to  Palestine  forms  no  part  of  our  prayers;  neither  does  the  lost  sacri- 
ficial service,  connected  Avith  that  hope,  because : 

4.  The  substitute,  the  worship  of  prayer  and  praise  and  of  the 
devout  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  had  already  won  the  affections  of 
the  Jewish  people  a  century  and  more  before  the  Christian  era;  in  the 
regions  of  the  diaspora,  long  before  that  time.  The  people's  meeting- 
house or  synagogue,  that  glorious  creation  of  the  Rabbis,  as  Claude 
Montefiore  calls  it,  the  venerable  mother  of  every  church  or  mosque 
on  earth,  of  St.  Peter  in  Rome,  St.  Paul  in  London,  and  the  Tadsh 
in  India,  became  the  People's  Temple,  and  the  pious  and  informed 
leader  in  devotion  became  the  priest  of  the  future.  Only  because  it 
was  violently  wrenched  from  the  nation  and  by  the  same  stroke  that 
ended  its  life,  the  loss  of  the  sacrificial  Ritual  continued  to  be  bewailed 
and  its  restitution  prayed  for  so  long  and  so  fervently.  The  sorrows 
of  the  exile  hid  from  the  Jewish  mind  the  true  significance  of  the  in- 
terdict of  sacrifices  by  the  inexorable  edict  of  fate.  But  light  came 
■with  the  new  day  of  liberty;  Israel  "fell,  we  say,  but  fell  upward;" 


32  THEOLOGY. 

and  we  have  no  desire  to  seek  our  way  downward  again.  The  adop- 
tion of  the  word  "Temple"  for  our  modern  houses  of  prayer,  in 
preference  of  "  Synagogue,"  is  one  of  the  landmarks  of  the  new  era. 
It  is  a  public  avowal,  and,  as  it  were,  official  declaration,  that  our 
final  separation  from  Palestine  and  Jerusalem  has  deprived  us  of 
nothing  we  can  not  have  wherever  we  gather  together  for  the  worship 
of  the  One  and  only  true  God  and  the  study  of  His  will, 

5.  The  tragic  question  of  the  Messiah  has  ceased  to  be  a  question 
for  us  ;  it  has  been  answered  once  for  all,  and  in  such  wise  that  we 
have  no  controversy  on  that  point  with  any  creed  or  church.  Has 
come,  is  come,  or  to  come  again,  all  difference  in  time,  is  meaningless 
to  us  by  the  adoption  of  the  present  tense:  Messiah  is  coming  now, 
as  he  has  been  coming  in  all  past  ages;  as  one  of  the  Talmudists  dis- 
tinctly taught:  nn;^  i^  pt^ssnn  dij^o  n'CDn  n^'2'   "-^^les- 

siah's  days  are  from  Adam  until  now."  That  form  of  the  idea  about 
which  the  dispute  has  hitherto  been  waged  between  synagogue  and 
church  is  clearly  a  creation  of  the  needs  of  a  certain  period  of  Jewisli 
history  fashioned  in  the  likeness  of  the  minds  that  testified  of  it ;  that 
we  leave  to  history  what  was  temporal  in  the  conception  ;  and  keep 
only  that  which  is  spiritual,  and,  therefore,  above  time.  That  part 
consists  in  the  belief  that  mankind  will  outgrow  and  overcome  all 
causes  of  evil  in  its  midst ;  that  peace  and  not  war,  love  and  not 
hatred,  freedom  and  not  bondage,  joy  and  not  pain,  knowledge  and 
not  ignorance,  trust  and  not  fear,  hope  and  not  despair,  are  the  ends 
toward  which  the  Ruler  of  the  world  is  guiding  mankind  ;  and  that 
Israel  was  chosen  to  make  this  proclamation  to  the  world,  and  to  labor 
and  to  suffer  in  the  fulfillment  of  that  mission.  About  things  of  the 
past,  we  dispute  not,  believing  with  Goethe  that 

Alles  Geschehende 
1st  nur  ein  Gleichniss, 

let  every  one  construe  these  events  or  what  goes  for  such  as  he  sees  fit. 
What  alone  and  always  concerns  us  is  its  influence  upon  the  present. 
And  when  the  Reformed  Jew  says :  Messiah  means  progress,  means 
betterment  all  around,  means  peace,  means  redeeming  of  the  fallen, 
means  equality  of  rights  and  good  will  toward  all  men,  means,  in 
short,  the  best  which  the  best  minds  could  ever  think  of  as  not  too 
good  for  the  humblest  brother  or  sister — how  far  is  he  in  this  hope 
and  faith  from  the  hope  and  faith  of  the  best  Christian?  What  mat- 
ters it  how  the  movement  began  or  who  began  it — so  we  only  agree  that 
we  must  move  on  and  upward  in  the  same  direction.     Has  it  not  been 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    RELIGIOUS    IDEAS    IN    JUDAISM.  33 

said  in  both  Testaments  that  in  the  end  God  shall  be  all  in  all?  Then 
shall  tlie  death  of  creeds  be  swallowed  up  in  the  victory  of  God's  own 
eternal  life. 

6.  With  the  development  of  the  Messianic  idea  came  the  change 
in  the  conception  of  Israel's  dispersion.  As  in  all  calamities,  so  in  the 
final  catastrophe  that  ended  his  national  life,  there  was  punishment 
for  sins;  but  it  was  not  that  alone,  nor  chiefly  so  ;  how  , else  can  we 
account  for  the  heroism  displayed  by  the  people  and  the  magnificence 
of  Judea's  death  scenes?  The  flames  that  consumed  Jerusalem's 
splendor  and  the  temple's  treasures  were  his  magnificent  funeral  pile. 
Can  sin,  can  crime  be  so  glorified?  And  has  he  not  received  a  thou- 
sandfold for  all  his  sins  ?  I  say  :  this  is  the  mercy  of  God  that  His 
punishments  are  meant  for  good  and  not  for  evil,  for  blessing  and  not 
for  curse  ;  and  he  that  curses  the  sinner  curses  God,  as  he  that  mock- 
eth  the  poor,  mocketh  his  maker.  We  deplore  no  more  our  dispersion, 
wish  for  no  ingathering.  Where  God  has  scattered  us,  there  also  is 
His  vineyard  into  which  we  are  called  as  laborers  ;  and  well  will  it  be 
with  us  if  we  are  numbered  amongst  those  that  were  found  faithful 
unto  the  Common  Master. 

These,  in  brief  and  general  outline,  are  the  changes  of  ideas  that 
have  come  to  pass  since  Mendelsohn.  Within  this  framework  others 
of  less  vital  importance,  though  not  less  notable,  occurred,  which, 
however,  it  is  impossible  to  mention  without  trespassing  the  limits  of 
time  allowed ;  as  the  Sabbath  and  the  Sunday  services,  the  i)osition  of 
woman,  and  others.  They  will,  however,  appear  in  the  complete 
treatise.     If  it  be  said  : 

"  But  yours  is  no  longer  the  Judaism  history  knows ;  it  is  virtually 
a  new  Judaism,"  we  answer :  "  Be  it  so,  as  long  as  it  is  Judaism  ;  and 
where  is  the  man  or  body  of  men  that  have  the  right  to  say  it  is  not?" 
We  stand  for  the  sacred  privilege  of  every  man  to  name  his  religion 
as  he  chooses,  and  to  affiliate  himself  to  any  creed  or  church  with 
which  he  feels  himself  in  sympathy.  Will  any  one  dare  to  question 
the  fidelity  of  the  modern  Jew  to  his  brethren,  or  his  independence  in 
avowing  his  religion  and  race  ?  A  new  Judaism.  This  is  precisely 
what  the  movement  aims  at.  It  does  not  wince  before  the  accusation. 
It  is  not  the  first  time  that  Judaism  is  taking  on  a  new  form  of  expres- 
sion and  rises  to  a  wider  reach  of  conceptions.  It  has  passed  through 
several  crises  and  come  forth  in  better  health  and  with  a  stronger  con- 
stitution. Our  inspiring  thought  is,  that  this  wonderful  faith,  withal 
so  simple,  so  free  from  mysticism — this  faith,  with  obedience  to  God's 
law  as  its  main  artery,  and  righteousness  for  its  soul — should  have 
passed  through  its  evolutions  without  losing  its  identity ;  that  it  did 


34  THEOLOGY. 

not  perish  under  the  ceaseless  strokes  of  a  world  that  has  emj)tied  all 
the  vials  of  its  wrath  upon  it.  Think  of  it,  what  it  means.  A  relig- 
ion of  that  hourv  age  and  that  long  and  vaiied  experience,  so  soon  as 
it  feels  the  breath  of  the  new  day,  bestirs  itself,  girds  up  its  loins,  and 
begins  the  work  of  fitting  and  adjusting  itself  to  the  needs  and  require- 
ments of  the  present  time.  Why,  the  mere  will  and  purpose  and  dar- 
ing, even  if  iiothing  came  of  it,  prove  that  it  can  not  be  a  dead  or 
dying  faith.  But  look  about  you,  and  see  the  fruits  of  the  departure 
on  every  side.  Here  we  are,  in  these  great  and  holy  days,  amongst 
you,  brethren  of  all  the  earth,  followers  of  many  prophets,  disciples 
of  many  masters,  children  of  many  churches,  gathered  together  from 
the  East  and  from  the  West,  from  the  North  and  from  the  South. 
Here  we  are,  a  community,  oldest  in  time,  but  smallest  in  tale,  w'itli  a 
record  of  trials  that  must  touch  every  feeling  heart.  Here  we  are, 
with  our  old  message  still  on  our  lips,  seeking  your  fellowship,  pledging 
our  o;ood  faith  to  the  best  things  you  stand  for,  asking  nothing  but 
what  you  yourselves  declare  to  be  due  to  every  child  of  God.  Will 
you  reject  our  hand,  or,  accepting,  help  us  to  make  God's  covenant 
with  his  ancient  people  a  covenant  of  peace  between  all  j)eoples  and. 
the  everlasting  Father  in  iieaveu  ? 


THE   SABBATH    IN    JUDAISM.  35 


THE  SABBATH  IN  JUDAISM. 

By  dr.  B.  FELSEXTHAL. 


The  desire  has  beeu  expressed  that  some  one  belonging  to  the 
Jewish  community  and  confessing  the  Jewish  religion  should  come  for- 
ward on  this  platform  and  speak  on  the  Sabbath-question  from  his 
Jewish  standpoint.  In  compliance  wdth  the  kind  request  that  I  should 
do  so,  I  appear  before  you  and  offer  you  a  few  thoughts  on  this  highly 
interesting  topic. 

The  Sabbath,  conceived  as  a  day  of  rest  and  of  sanctification,  is 
undoubtedly  of  a  Jewish  origin,  and  to  the  Jews  the  Christian  world  is 
indebted  for  this  grand  institution.  It  is  true  enough — and  we  admit 
it  without  hesitation — that  the  Semitic  nations,  among  them  the  As- 
syrians especially,  celebrated  in  their  own  way  and  manner  one  day  in 
each  week,  long  before  the  Israelites  did  so.  But  witli  them  the  day 
was  not  a  day  of  rest,  giving  recreation  to  the  body;  not  a  day  of 
pure  and  innocent  joy,  refresliing  to  the  soul;  not  a  day  of  thought- 
ful meditation,  enlarging  the  mind.  It  was  with  them  either  a  day 
of  fasting,  of  wailing  and  lamentation,  or  a  day  given  up  to  sensual 
excesses  and  to  low  and  degrading  revelry.  And,  furthermore,  it  was 
dedicated  to  the  god  Saturii,  a  god  whom  the  prophet  Amos  mentions 
under  the  name  of  Kiyyun,  or  to  some  other  of  the  gods  worshiped 
by  these  heatheni:=h  nations.  From  Western  Asia  the  belief  in  the 
seven  planetary  deities,  ruling  the  seven  days  of  the  week,  came  to 
Egypt,  from  Egypt  to  Rome,  from  Rome  to  Gallia,  Germania,  the 
British  Islands,  and  other  European  countries,  and  in  the  English  lan- 
guage the  name  of  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  viz.,  the  name 
Saturday,  is  still  bearing  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  seventh  day  in 
the  week  was  dedicated  in  ancient  times  to  the  god  Saturn. 

While  among  the  Assyrians  and  a  few  kindred  nations  the  day 
celebrated  in  each  week  was  devoted  either  to  fasting  and  mourning 
or  to  sensual  and  dissolute  pleasures,  the  celebration  of  the  Sabbath 
among  the  Israelites  was  decidedly  and  essentially  of  quite  a  different 
nature.  With  them  it  was,  or  at  least  it  became  in  the  course  of  a 
few  centuries,  a  day  of  joyful  rest  from  wearisome  labor,  a  day  of  ho- 
liness, of  elevating  the  mind,  of  cleansing  the  heart,  of  purifying  the 


36  THEOLOGY. 

will.  It  became  a  means  for  lifting  up  the  Israelite  religiously  and 
morally,  and  for  placing  him,  religiously  and  morally,  on  a  higher 
plane.  In  tliis  connection  it  deserves  especially  to  be  noted  that  by 
the  Sabbath  the  Israelite  was  lead  to  a  humane  treatment  of  all  his 
fellow-beings — of  all  bis  fellow-beings,  including  the  sorrow-laden 
stranger  and  the  afflicted  slave,  including  oven  the  toiling  and  other- 
wise helpless  cattle.  For  thus  it  is  repeatedly  said  in  the  Law,  "  Thy 
man-servant  and  thy  maid-servant  shall  rest  on  the  Sabbath-day  as  ivell 
as  fhyself,  and  the  stranger  within  thy  gates  also,  and  thy  ox  and  thy 
ass  likewise."  And  this  day  w-as  not  devoted  to  Saturn  or  to  some 
other  pagan  deity,  but  it  was  Shabbath  la-Jehovah  Elohekha,  a  Sabbath 
devoted  "to  the  Lord  thy  God;"  it  was  7u»(:/e.:^^,  sanctified,  or  set  apart, 
to  the  service  of  the  Lord,  to  the  One-God  of  Israel  and  of  all  the 
world,  to  the  Ruler  of  the  nations,  the  Father  of  mankind. 

In  the  first  centuries,  following  the  times  of  Moses,  the  masses  of 
the  people  had  not  risen  to  the  heights  of  the  pure  and  lofty  con- 
ception of  the  Sahbath-idea  as  it  was  taught  by  the  divinely  ins[)ired 
prophets.  From  the  words  of  warning  and  admonition  and  exhorta- 
tion falling  from  the  lips  of  several  of  these  prophets,  we  must  con- 
clude that  there  were  large  numbers  of  people  who  disregarded  or  pro- 
faned the  Sabbath,  and  who  did  not  keep  it  in  the  sense  desired  by 
these  prophets  and  incomparable  teachers ;  by  these  teachers  who 
were  teachers  not  only  for  their  contemporaries,  but  for  all  subsequent 
generations,  and  not  only  for  Israel,  but  for  all  the  world.  Still, 
nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the  return  from  the  Balylouian  captivity, 
Nehemiah  bitterly  complained  abi)ut  the  profanation  of  the  Sabbath, 
and  from  the  Biblical  book  bearing  his  name,  we  learn  how  he  in- 
sisted upon  certain  measures  in  order  to  bring  about  a  better  observance 
of  the  day.  But  in  post-Nehemian  times,  a  stricter  observance  of  the 
Sabbath  became  general,  and  since  the  fifth  century  B.  C.  until  the 
middle  of  the  present  century,  the  Jews,  as  a  community,  rarely,  if 
ever,  desecrated  the  Sabbath  by  physical  labor  or  otherwise.  On  the 
contrary,  a  spirit  of  extreme  rigor  in  the  manner  of  keeping  the  Sab- 
bath grew  up  rapidly,  and  a  tendency  prevailed  to  extend  to  the 
utmost  limits  the  practice  of  abstaining  from  labor,  and  to  follow  the 
deductions  from  tliis  law  and  the  ramifications  of  the  same  in  all  pos- 
sible directions.  But  there  was  a  danger  lurking  in  this  tendency, 
the  danger  that  thereby  the  higlier  character  of  the  Sabbath  and  its 
power  for  sanctifying  the  soul-life  of  the  observant  Jew  might  be  for- 
gotten, or  might  at  least  be  pushed  into  the  background.  Happily — 
thus  impartial  Hi.^tory  teaches  us— these  apprehensions  proved  to  be 
groundless.     The  Sabbath  retained  its  sanctifying  power  and    influ- 


THE   SABBATH    IN    JUDAISM.  37 

ence  even  among  the  extremest  of  the  strictly  law-abiding  Jews,  with 
whom  each  of  the  mimerous  precepts  of  the  so-called  Oral  Law  or 
Traditional  Law  was  a  noli  me  tangere.  With  a  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple at  least,  the  essence  of  the  Sabbath  was  not  considered  to  exist 
in  the  observance  of  the  innumerable  negative,  talmudical,  and  rab- 
binical precepts,  telling  us  what  a  Jew  must  not  do  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  the  higher  character  of  the  Sabbath  did  not  disappear  and  did  not 
become  lost  among  the  Jews.  Nevertheless,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  great  teacher  of  Nazareth  was  perfectly  correct  when  lie  upbraided 
a  certain  class  of  his  Jewish  contemporaries  for  their  laying  the  main 
stress  and  accent  upon  the  negative  side  of  keeping  the  Sabbath. 
His  words  regarding  the  Sabbath  were  golden  words.  And  he  was 
in  full  harmony  and  accord  with  other  Jewish  teachers  living  in  his 
time  or  soon  after  him,  when  he  maintained  that  not  in  the  Sabbath 
ceremonials  and  not  in  the  scrupulous  abstaining  from  physical  labor 
consists  the  holiness  of  the  Sabbath;  and  when  he  said  that,  "the 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath."  Rab- 
binical sayings  which  have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Apostolic  age 
and  which  are  clothed  almost  in  the  very  words  in  which  the  cor- 
responding New  Testament  sentences  are  expressed,  we  meet  fre- 
quently in  the  various  parts  of  the  Talmudical  literature.  Ha-Shah- 
bath  metsurah  lakhem  velo  attem  mesurim  la-Shabbath;  "the  Sabbath  is 
handed  over  to  you,  but  you  are  not  iianded  over  to  the  Sabbath." 
Kol  saphek  nephashoth  do'he  eih  ha-Shabhath ;  "if  the  remotest  danger 
to  liealth  or  life  is  to  be  apprehended,  the  Sabbath  must  be  disre- 
garded and  the  Sabbath  laws  must  be  deviated  from."  Such  and 
similar  sentences  could  be  quoted  from  the  Jewish  literature  of  yonder 
times  in  considerable  number.  The  regulations  of  the  Pharisees  in 
the  times  of  Jesus,  the  laws  laid  down  by  the  dialecticians  of  the  Tal- 
mud and  their  followers  in  later  centuries,  by  the  casuists  of  the  post- 
talmudical  period,  they  could  not  and  did  not  deprive  the  Jewish  Sab- 
bath of  its  higher  and  holier  character.  They  contributed  rather  to  a 
certain  degree  to  enhance  the  holiness  of  the  Sabbath,  and  to  give  to 
the  day  a  still  greater  power  for  sanctifying  the  inner  and  the  outer 
life  of  the  confessor  of  Judaism. 

But,  iu  briefly  outlining  the  history  of  the  Sabbath  institution 
among  Jews,  should  we  restrict  ourselves  to  merely  looking  up  the  old 
Jewish  law-books?  No  live  institution  can  be  fully  understood  if  we 
study  merely  the  written  laws  and  ordinances  concerning  the  same. 
The  life  of  any  great  institution  and  its  real  character  manifests  itself 
independently  of  the  words  of  books,  of  the  letters  of  laws,  of  the  say- 
ings of  old  authorities.     And   if  we   now   ask  history,  we   sh;dl   soon 


38  THEOLOGY. 

learn  that  the  Sabbath  proved  to  be  an  institution  of  the  greatest 
blessing  for  the  Jews.  It  was  for  them,  in  the  first  place,  one  of  the 
means,  and  a  very  powerful  one,  by  which  the  preservation  of  the 
Jews  as  a  separate  religious  community  was  secured.  The  Sabbath 
endowed  them  with  an  unshakable  confidence  in  a  Divine  Providence, 
and  gave  tliem  every  week  new  strength  to  withstand  the  almost 
unceasing  cruel  and  pitiless  attempts  to  exterminate  the  Jewish  people 
and  to  extinguish  the  Jewish  religion  ;  and  it  kept  them  united  as  one 
religious  denomination  despite  of  their  having  been  dispersed  over  so 
many  parts  of  the  world  and  despite  of  their  having  no  ruling  hie- 
rarchv  and  no  other  centralizing  authorities.  The  Sabbath,  together 
with  a  few  other  strong  bonds,  effected  this  almost  miraculous  per- 
petuation of  Israel's  existence. 

And  what  a  great  bliss  and  happiness  did  the  Sabbath  bring  to 
the  family-life!  The  more  the  storms  raged  outside,  the  closer  and 
firmer  became  the  mutual  attachment  of  the  members  of  the  families  to 
each  other  and  of  the  families  among  themselves.  And  while  the  Jews 
during  the  week  days  had  to  go  out  into  the  world  and  to  see  where 
they  could  find  the  scanty  bread  for  themselves  and  their  families,  and 
while  in  doing  so  they  had  to  experience  so  much  humiliation,  so 
much  malice,  so  much  hatred — when  the  Friday  evening  came  and 
they  were  again  within  the  circles  of  their  families,  they  were  joyful, 
they  lighted  the  Sabbath  lamps,  they  sang  their  Sabbatii  hymns,  they 
chanted  their  Psalms,  and  they  forgot,  once  in  each  week,  all  the  sor- 
rows and  cares  of  every-day-life,  and  all  the  affronts  and  insults  which, 
without  pity  and  without  mercy,  were  heaped  upon  them,  and  at  least 
on  the  Sabbath  they  felt  released  in  body  and  soul  from  troubles  and 
burdens. 

The  Sabbath  proved  also  a  great  blessing  to  the  Jews  in  another 
regard.  To  the  observance  of  this  day  the  Jews  owe  the  conspicuous 
fact  that  ignorance  never  spread  among  them  as  far  as  among  manv 
other  nations  and  sects.  With  the  Jews  education  and  learning  were 
at  all  times  kept  in  high  esteem.  To  this  came  now  the  deep-rooted 
usage  that  in  each  city  and  town  where  Jews  were  living,  discourses 
were  delivered  and  learned  debates  were  held  on  the  Sabbath  days  in 
schools,  in  the  synagogues,  in  the  meeting  rooms  of  societies  of  various 
kinds,  and  in  consf  quonce  of  the  instruction  received  by  the.se  dis- 
courses and  debates  the  audiences  were  more  or  less  enlitrhtened  in  the 
principles  of  their  faith  and  in  the  doctrines  and  precepts  of  their  re- 
ligion. And  thus  to  the  Sabbath,  too,  we  can  partly  ascribe  the  fact 
that,  in  that  perind  of  history  called  "the  Middle  Ages,"  a  period 
which  was  characterized  by  the  deep  darkness  of  ignorance  and  super- 


THE   SABBATH    IN   JUDAISM.  39 

stition  prevailing  almost  every-where  among  the  Christian  nations  in 
those  times,  numerous  poets  and  philosophers  and  scholars  arose  and 
flourished  among  the  Jews. 

We  must,  before  we  close,  not  forget  to  remark  that  the  Jewish 
Sabbath  had  at  all  times  the  character  of  cheerfulness  and  delighr. 
In  the  Old  Testament  already  we  read  the  words  of  the  prophet  by 
which  he  reminded  the  people  to  "call  the  Sabbath  a  delight."  And 
in  the  post-biblical  literature  of  the  Jews  we  find  evidence  that  for  the 
Jews  the  Sabbath  was  a  day  of  cheerfulness  and  of  bright  sunshine,  a 
hundredfold  and  a  thousandfold.  Other  sources  of  Jewish  history 
corroborate  more  than  fully  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  among  the  Jews 
had  such  a  serene  and  cheering  character.  On  each  Friday  afternoon, 
when  the  Sabbath  was  approaching — so  we  read  in  the  Talmud — Rabbi 
'Hauina  clothed  himself  in  his  festive  attire  and  went  into  the  fields 
with  his  disciples  and  friends,  saying  to  them:  "Come,  let  us  go  to 
meet  becomingly  and  in  a  festive  mode  the  queen  Sabbath."  Rabbi 
Jannai  acted  likewise,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  receive  the  Sabbath 
joyfully  by  sayiug:  "  Be  welcome,  O  bride!  Be  welcome,  O  bride!" 
Rabbi  Josua,  another  great  authority  of  the  Talmud,  said:  "Let  the 
celebration  of  the  Sabbath  be  divided  into  two  parts;  one  half  to  be 
devoted  to  God,  tlie  other  half  to  your  own  enjoyment."  Rabbi  Jose 
said:  "Whosoever  keeps  the  Sabbath  in  a  joyous  manner,  will  be 
richly  rewarded."  Rabbi  Jehudah  added:  "Whosoever  keeps  the 
Sabbath  in  a  joyous  manner,  will  have  all  the  desires  of  his  heart  ful- 
filled." And  how — thus  the  Talmud  continues  to  ask — is  the  Sabbath 
to  be  kept  in  a  joyous  manner?  To  which  question  one  of  the  rabbis 
answers:  "By  having  better  meals  than  usually  and  the  like."  Let  it 
also  be  added  here,  that  it  was  a  law  antedating  the  rise  of  Christianity 
to  open  the  festive  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  on  Friday  evenings  by 
Kiddush,  that  is,  l)y  praising  God,  the  giver  of  all  good  things,  over  a 
cup  of  wine,  and  by  the  drinking  of  wine  during  the  Sabbath  meals, 
and  every  one  of  the  family  partook  in  this  wine  drinking.  "Without 
doubt,  this  law  concerning  Kiddush  was  piously  observed  by  Jesus  and 
his  friends,  as  he,  whom  millions  of  our  Christian  brethren  adore  as 
their  "Master"  and  as  the  divine  founder  of  their  religion,  himself 
lias  declared  that  he  had  not  come  to  destroy  the  law,  but  to  fulfill  it. 
This  law  just  mentioned  is  still  strictly  observed  among  so-called  or- 
thodox Jews,  by  those  who  have  the  means  to  do  so. 

Sad  and  serious  contemplations  were  not  permitted  on  Sabbath, 
nor  were  fasting,  or  mourning,  or  supplications  in  behalf  of  sufl^erers. 
While  the  reading  and  study  of  Sacred  Scriptures  and  of  other  good 
books  was  certainly  highly  recommended,  it  was  prohibited  to  read  ou 


40  THEOLOGY. 

Sabbath  certain  parts  of  them,  as  e.  g.  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah 
and  other  portions  of  a  similar  sad  character.  For  no  gloom  should 
till  the  heart  of  the  Jew  on  the  Sabbath,  and  no  other  sentiment 
should  dwell  therein  than  of  pure  joy.  It  is  well  known  that  the  pre- 
cepts of  Judaism  laid  great  stress  upon  the  sacred  duty  of  visiting 
the  sick  and  of  consoling  the  mourner.  While  such  acts  of  kindness, 
of  sympathy  and  mercy  were  not  to  be  neglected  on  the  Sabbath  day 
on  account  of  the  Sabbath,  yet  the  Sabbath  joy  should  be  disturbed 
thereby  as  little  as  possible.  Thus,  when  one  visited  on  a  Sabbath  a 
sick  person,  he  had  to  refrain  from  the  common  methods  of  consola- 
tion, and  he  had  to  say  to  the  sick  and  his  friends :  "It  is  Sab- 
bath to-day,  and  it  is  not  right  that  on  this  day  we  should  send  up 
to  God  our  supplications  to  restore  the  suffering  brother;  but  health 
and  strength,  let  us  hope,  will  speedily  come,  and  you,  you  keep  your 
Sabbath  in  peace."  Similar  words  were  spoke  on  Sabbath  to  those 
who  were  in  mourning  for  a  dear  departed  one. 

Much  more  could  be  said  on  this  subject.  Hours  could  be  filled 
without  exhausting  it.  Yet  I  feel  that  this  is  not  the  place  nor  the 
time  for  doing  so.  One  thought,  however,  I  can  not  refrain  from  ex- 
pressing before  I  close.  We  live,  God  be  praised,  in  the  freest  land 
of  the  world,  in  the  United  States  of  America,  in  a  land  where 
Church  and  State  are  entirely  separated,  and  where  every  one  can 
follow  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience  and  the  precepts  of  his  own 
religion,  as  long  as  he  does  not  thereby  infringe  upon  the  rights  and 
})rivileges  of  his  neighbor.  Let  now  the  Jew,  who  desires  to  keep  his 
Sabbath  in  his  own  way,  have  the  undisturbed  right  to  keep  it  when 
and  how  he  wishes.  And  let  no  unholy  and  sacrilegious  hands  attempt 
to  attack  the  sanctuary  of  American  freedom.  May  the  dark  day 
never  come  on  which  it  shall  be  decreed  by  any  legislative  or  execu- 
tive power  in  America  that  one  certain  day  for  keeping  the  Sabbath 
and  one  certain  manner  of  keeping  it  he  forced  upon  unwilling  mi- 
norities. The  Sabbath  is  a  grand  and  sacred  institution — we  all  agree 
in  that.  But  its  celebration  must  be  left  to  the  individual  ;  it  belongs 
to  the  category  of  his  eternal  and  inalienable  rights.  American  liberty, 
I  venture  to  say,  is  a  still  grander  and  a  still  holier  institution,  and  the 
maintenance  of  it  is  intrusted  to  each  and  every  American  citizen.  Wc 
praise  the  weekly  Sabliath,  we  are  sure  that  from  it  immense  blessings 
will  spring  forth — blessings  for  the  mental  and  for  the  moral  life  of 
individuals,  of  families,  and  of  society  at  large.  But  what  the  laws 
and  statutes,  enacted  or  to  be  enacted  by  the  legislative  authorities 
of  our  American  States,  can  do  for  the  Sabbath,  is  this,  and  only  this : 
They  can  protect  and  ought  to  jirotect  every  congregation  assembled 


THE   SABBATH    IN   JUDAISM.  41 

on  their  Sabbath  for  divine  worship  in  a  church,  or  a  chapel,  or  a 
synagogue,  or  a  mosque,  or  any  other  place,  against  being  disturbed  in 
their  worship;  and  they  can  guarantee  and  ought  to  guarantee  to  each 
person  in  our  laud,  and  be  he  the  poorest  laborer,  one  day  of  perfect 
rest  in  each  week  of  seven  consecutive  days.  All  further  Sabbath 
legislation  by  the  State  powers  is  unnecessary  and  would  be  un- 
American.  But  let  us,  let  all  the  friends  of  the  great  and  sacred 
Sabbath-institution  trust  in  the  power  of  public  opinion.  Relying  upon 
this  great  power  and  upon  the  divine  blessings  of  our  Heavenly  Father, 
we,  all  of  us  and  all  the  friends  of  the  holy  Sabbath-institution,  can 
look  hopefully  toward  the  future  and  can  rest  assured  that  the  land 
in  all  times  to  come  will  have  a  Sabbath,  u  real,  genuine  Sabbath. 


42  THEOLOGY. 


WHAT  THE  HEBREW  SCRIPTURES  HAVE  WROUGHT  FOR 

MANKIND. 

By  dr.  ALEXANDER  KOHUT,  NEW  YORK. 


To  them  who  cradled  in  the  iufancy  of  faith,  rocked  by  violent 
tempests  of  adversity,  and  tried  by  pa-ssion-waves  of  lurking  tempta- 
tion ;  who  seeking  virtues,  find  but  vice  ;  who  striving  for  the  ideal,  gain 
but  the  bleakest  summit  of  realism;  who  sorely  pressed  by  rude  time 
and  ruder  destiny,  encounter  but  shipwrecks  upon  shipwrecks  in  the 
turbulent  oceans  of  existence:  God  is  the  anchor  of  a  newborn  hope, 
the  electric  quickener  of  life's  uneven  current,  drifting  into  His  harbor 
of  safest  refuge  from  the  hurricanes  of  outward  seas,  wherein  no  ship, 
no  craft  ever  founders,  drifting  into  the  tranquil  Bible  streams. 

Faith  is  a  spark  of  God's  own  flame,  and  nowhere  did  it  burn 
with  more  persistence  than  in  the  ample  folds  of  Israel's  devotion. 
There  worship  and  sacerdotal  lights  of  virtue  glowed  with  mellow  un- 
pretentious ambition,  fanned  by  [)rophetic  admonition  and  timely  ad- 
vices. No  exterior  luster  of  transient  hue  could  effectually  diminish 
the  cliaste,  unrivaled  radiance  of  Israel's  ever  luminous  belief  in  Him 
and  His  all-guiding  providence.  With  faith  as  the  corner-stone  of  the 
future,  the  glorious  past  of  the  Jew,  suffused  with  the  warmest  sun- 
shine of  divine  effulgence  and  human  trust,  reflects  the  most  perl'ect 
image  of  individual  and  national  existence.  Faith  — the  Bible  creed 
of  Israel — was  the  first  and  most  vit:il  principle  of  universal  ethics, 
and  it  was  the  Jew,  now  the  Pariah  pilgrim  of  ungrateful  humanity, 
who  bequeathed  this  precious  legacy  to  Semitic  and  Aryan  nations,  who 
sowed  the  healthy  seeds  of  irradicable  belief  in  often  unfertile  ground, 
but  with  patient,  inexhaustible  vigor  infused  that  inherent  vitality  of 
propagation  and  endurance,  which  forever  marks  the  progress  and  tri- 
umph of  God's  chosen,  though  unaece]>ted  people. 

This  then,  to  begin  with,  is  Judea's  first  and  dearest  donation  to 
mankind's  treasury  of  good  ! 

Israel  also  gave  the  world  :i  pure  rdicjiou.  a  creed  undominated  by 
cumbrous  tyranny,  unembarrassed  by  dogmatic  technicalities,  unsus- 
tained  bv  heavv  self-.sacrifioo  and  over-extravamnt  ceremonialism — a 
religion  sublime  and  unique  in  history,  free  from  gaping  superstitions. 


WHAT   THE   HEBREW   SCRIPTURES   HAVE   WROUGHT,  ETC.  43 

ap{)alling  idolatries  and  vicious  immoralities;  a  pure,  taintless,  lofty, 
elevating,  inspiring  and  love-permeating  faith,  originating  in  a  mono- 
theistic conception,  and  culminating  in  that  indestructible  edifice, 
which  no  waterfall  of  time,  no  stratagem  of  destiny,  no  shrewd  device 
of  man,  no  whim  of  circumstance,  no  hatred,  no  bigotry,  and  no  harsh 
excommunication  from  civilization,  could  ever  degrade  into  intellectual 
slavery,  beguile  into  infidelity,  or  corrupt  into  treachery.  A  relig- 
ion at  whose  sparkling  fountain  wells  of  ethical  and  cultural  truths 
the  world's  famed  pioneers  in  art,  science,  literature,  politics,  philoso- 
phy, architecture  and  kindred  attainments  of  learning,  so  eminently 
wielded  by  classic  Greece  and  boastful  Rome,  slaked  their  thirst. 

In  religion,  Hebrew  genius  was  supreme.  It  is  no  rhetorical  ex- 
travagance of  sentiment,  nor  misplaced  eulogy,  to  assert,  that  "in  the 
ancient  world  Israel  attained  an  eminence  as  much  above  all  other 
peoj)les  of  the  circum-Mediterraneau  world  in  religion  as  did  Greece 
in  art,  philosophy  and  science,  or  Rome  in  war  and  government."  In 
fact,  the  Hebrews  drank  of  the  fountain,  the  Greeks  from  the  streavi,  and  the 
Romans  from  the  pool.  Those  majestic  Hebrew  seers  are  reproduced  in 
worthy  prototypes  in  modern  Judea  to-day,  only  in  them  the  national 
force  was  strongly  impelled  upward.  "They  grasped  heavenly  things 
so  vividly,  that  even  their  bodily  senses  seemed  to  lay  hold  of  God 
and  angels.  Spiritual  pi'esences  faced  the  bodily  sight  in  wilderness, 
or  burning  bush,  or  above  the  ark  of  the  covenant.  The  earthly 
ear  caught  tones  from  the  other  world  in  some  still,  small  voice,  or 
pealing  from  a  bare  mountain  peak.  And  here  it  is  that  the  Jew  has 
accomplished  his  most  extraordinary  achievement.  His  ftiith  furnished 
the  stock  upon  which  two  other  religions  have  grafted  their  creeds. 
And  all  this  national  magnificence,  religious  superiority  and  un- 
paralleled historic  grandeur  is  recorded  in  the  Sacred  Annals — that 
unsurpassed  standard  for  man's  moral  and  mental  government — the 
Book.  Every  unprejudiced  mind  gladly  acknowledges  now  that  the 
Bible,  the  divine  Encyclopedia  of  unalienable  truths  and  morals,  be- 
longs to  the  world,  like  the  sun,  the  air,  the  ocean,  the  rivers,  the 
fountains — the  common  heirloom  of  humanity. 

No  need  to  ask  who  first  bequeathed  its  treasures  of  law,  religion, 
truth,  morality,  righteousness,  equity,  brotherly  love,  not  to  speak  of 
its  literary  and  scientific  merits;  who  first  diffused  its  luster,  dissemi- 
nated its  doctriues;  who  first  planted  so  extensively  and  cultivated  so 
highly  this  flower-garden  with  its  diverse  variety  of  luscious  fruits  and 
blooming  lands  ?     Was  it  not  Moses  charged  by  the  Lord  : 

"  Gather  the  people  together,  and  I  will  give  them  water!"  and 
was  it  not  Israel  that  sang  this  song  : 


44  THEOLOGY. 

"  Spring  up,  O  well,  sing  ye  (nations)  unto  it, 
The  well  which  the  nobler  of  the  people  delved 
With  the  scepter  and  with  their  staves." 

Cl)aldea  wrought  magic;  Babylonia,  myth;  Greece,  art;  Rome, 
war  and  chivalry; — of  Judca,  let  it  l)e  said,  that  she  founded  a  hal- 
lowed i'aitli,  s])read  a  pure  religion,  and  propagated  the  paternal  love 
of  an  all-father.  Hid  omnipresence  feeds  the  lamp  of  the  universe, 
speaking  in  all  its  voices,  listening  in  all  its  silence,  storming  in  its 
rage,  reposing  in  its  calm ;  its  light  the  shadow  of  His  greatness,  its 
gloom  the  hiding-place  of  His  power,  its  verdure  the  trace  of  His  steps, 
its  fire  the  breath  of  His  nostrils,  its  motion  the  circulation  of  His  un- 
tiring energies,  its  warmth  the  effluence  of  His  love,  its  mountains  the 
altars  of  His  worship  and  its  oceans  the  mirrors  where  He  beholds  His 
form  "glassed  in  tempest."  Compared  to  those  conceptions,  how  does 
the  fine  dream  of  the  pagan  myths  melt  away — Olympus  with  its 
multitude  of  stately,  celestial  natures,  dwindles  before  the  solitary,  im- 
mutable throne  of  Adonai.  What  is  all  the  poetry  and  philosophy  of 
Greece,  all  the  wisdom  of  the  entire  heathenish  world,  compared  with  the 
one  sentence  :  "  Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one,"  or 
held  before  any  of  those  ten  majestic  commands  hurled  down  amid  lurid 
blaze  from  above,  in  a  halo  of  divine  revelation  !  The  revealed  Mosaic 
Law,  with  its  unequaled  mastery  of  detail,  its  comprehensiveness  of 
character,  its  universality  of  human  right  and  rigid  suppression  of 
wrong,  its  enthusiastic  championship  of  truth,  justice,  morality,  and 
above  all  righteousness,  is  the  most  unique  marvel  of  lofty  wisdom  and 
divine  forethought  ever  penned  into  the  inspired  records  of  authentic 
history.  Righteousness,  from  its  patriarchal  primitiveness  to  full- 
blown glory  of  prophetic  instinct,  is  the  choicest  pearl  of  Biblical  eth- 
ics, and  together  with  the  fervently  advocated  brotherly  love,  pleads 
most  eloquently  Judea's  claim  as  the  first  moral  preceptor  of  antiquity. 
"As  long  as  the  world  lasts,"  declares  a  modern  Bible  bard — Matthew 
Arnold — "all  who  want  to  make  progress  in  righteousness  will  come 
to  Israel  for  inspiration,  as  to  the  people  who  have  had  the  sense  for 
righteousness  most  glowing  and  strongest.  The  Hebrew  race  has 
found  the  revelation  needed  to  breathe  emotion  into  the  laws  of  moral- 
ity and  make  morality  religion.  This  revelation  is  the  capital  fact  of 
the  old  Testament  and  the  source  of  its  grandeur  and  power.  For, 
while  other  nations  had  the  misleading  idea  that  this  or  that,  other  than 
righteousness,  is  saving,  and  it  is  not;  that  this  or  that,  other  than 
conduct,  brings  happiness,  and  it  does  not;  Israel  had  the  true  idea,  that 
righteousness  is  saving,  that  to  conduct  belongs  haj)piness." 


WHAT   THE    HEBREW   SCRIPTURES   HAVE   WROUGHT,   ETC.  45 

Let  us  now  briefly  demonstrate  to  what  degree  huuiauity  is  in- 
debted to  Hebrew  Scriptures  for  some  other  gifts  not  so  generally 
accredited  to  Judaism  "by  the  envy  of  modern  skeptics. 

On  Judea's  soil,  that  green  oasis  in  the  desert  of  yore,  first  blos- 
somed and  flourished  the  lilies  of  actual  culture  and  civilization. 
There  blossomed  the  bud  of  polite  arts,  of  the  so  much  boasted  sciences 
of  later  Greece  and  i)lagiarizing  Rome.  The  flowers  of  stately  rheto- 
ric, thrilling  drama,  captivating  song,  lyric  poetry,  fervent  psalmody, 
and  rhythmic  prose,  not  to  speak  of  legend  and  fable,  myth  and  para- 
ble, metaphor  and  hyperbole,  wit  and  humor,  sarcasm  and  allegory, 
and  minor  subdivisions  of  graphic  and  sentimental  love — all  thrived 
and  matured  in  its  fertile  grounds.  Greece  and  Rome,  of  classic  art 
and  pagan  splendor,  with  their  skilled  adepts  in  letters  and  all  manner 
of  research,  with  their  magnetic  orators,  powerful  rhetoricians,  world- 
famed  poets,  and  romantic  historians,  were  indebted  to  humble  Israel 
for  that  reputed  familiarity  with  profound  philosophy  and  cognate 
learning.  Imbued  with  a  spirit  of  hero-worship,  the  archaic  visionary 
is  wholly  lost  in  the  alluring  vistas  of  Greek  and  Roman  genius,  and 
is  but  with  pardonable  reluctance  argued  into  discarding  his  fixed  and 
cherished  convictions  as  regards  the  superiority  of  Hellenic  and  Au- 
gustan culture.  Can,  however,  Plato,  Demosthenes,  Cato,  Cicero, 
and  other  tlumderers  of  eloquence,  compete  with  such  lightning-rods 
of  magnetic  power  as  Moses,  David,  Isaiah,  Jereniiah,  Ezekiel,  and 
other  poet-orators  of  Bible  times?  Who  wrote  nobler  history,  Moses, 
Livy,  or  Herodotus?  Or  are  the'dranias  and  tragedies  of  Sophocles, 
JEschylus,  Euripides,  worthy  of  classification  with  the  masterpieces  of 
realism  and  grand  cosmogonic  conceptions  furnished  us  in  the  soul- 
vibrating  account  of  Job's  martyrdom?  In  poetry  and  hymnology, 
the  harp  of  David  is  tuned  to  sweeter  melody  than  Virgil's  ^neid  or 
Horace's  Odes. 

Strabo's  accurate  geographical  and  ethnological  accounts  are  not 
more  thorough  in  detail  than  Scriptural  narratives  and  the  famous 
tenth  chapter  of  Genesis.  The  haughty  philosophical  maxims  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  Epictetus,  and  Seneca  fade  into  insignificance  before 
the  edifying  discourses  and  moral  chidings  of  Koheleth,  whose  very 
pessimism,  in  contradistinction  to  heathenish  levity,  foiled  not  to  in- 
spire and  instruct.  Compare  the  ethics  of  Aristotle  with  those  pure 
gems  of  monition  to  truth,  righteousness,  and  moral  chastity  contained 
in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  and  confront  even  the  all-conquering  intel- 
lect of  Socrates  with  Solomonic  wisdom.  "The  zephyrs  of  Attica 
were  as  bland,  and  Helicon  and  Parnassus  were  as  lofty  and  verdant, 
before  Judea  put  forth  her  displays  of  learning  and   the  arts,  as  after- 


46  THEOLOGY, 

wards."  Yet  no  Homer  was  ever  heard  reciting  his  vibrating  strains 
of  poetry  until  David,  Isaiah,  and  other  nionarchs  of  genius  and  soul- 
culture,  poured  forth  tlieir  sublime  symphonies  in  the  Holy  Land  ;  yet 
none  of  all  the  muses  breathed  their  inspiration  over  Greece  till  the 
Spirit  of  the  Most  High  had  awakened  the  Soul  of  Letters  and  of  Arts 
in  the  nation  of  the  Hebrews.  Not  to  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  or  Syria  do 
Greece  and  her  disciple,  Rome,  owe  their  eminence  in  the  entertaining 
and  retined  branches  of  learning.  They  flourished  at  a  period  so  re- 
mote that  fable  replaces  fact,  and  no  authentic  i-ecords — chiefly  ob- 
tained through  a  comparatively  new  field  in  modern  exploration — are 
extant,  which  establish  an  impartial  priority  of  culture  and  science 
before  the  Hebraic  age. 

Egypt  is  accredited  with  far  too  much  distinction  in  knowledge, 
which  she  never  possessed  in  any  eminent  degree.  Recent  excavations 
and  discoveries  from  ruins  of  her  ancient  cities  tend  to  corroborate  our 
view.  A  mass  of  inscribed  granite,  a  pajiyrus  roll,  or  a  sarcophagus 
bears  the  tell-tale  message  of  her  standard  in  taste  and  her  progress  in 
art.  "They  prove,"  says  an  erudite  commentator,  "  that  if  she  were 
entitled  to  be  called  the  Cradle  of  Science,  it  must  have  been  when 
science,  owing  to  the  feebleness  of  infancy,  required  the  use  of  a 
cradle.  But  when  science  had  outgrown  the  appendages  of  bewilder- 
jno'and  totterintr  infancy,  and  had  reached  matured  form  and  streno^th, 
Egypt  was  neither  her  guardian  nor  her  home.  Many  of  Egypt's 
works  of  art,  for  which  an  antiquity  has  been  claimed  that  would 
place  them  anterior  to  David  and  Solomon,  have  been  shown  to  be 
comparatively  modern ;  while  those  confessedly  of  an  earlier  date 
have  marks  of  an  age  which  may  have  excelled  in  compact  solidity, 
but  knew  little  or  nothing  of  finished  symmetry  or  grace." 

Architecture,  the  boast  of  Greece  and  the  pride  of  Assyria,  whose 
stately  palaces  of  Nineveh  are  to  this  day  the  marvel  of  the  world,  at- 
tained its  loftiest  summit  of  perfection  in  the  noble  structure  reared 
bv  Israel's  mighty  king  in  Jernsalem,  of  which  the  holy  tabermicle 
mounted  by  the  Cherubim  of  peace  and  sanctity  was  the  magnificent 
model.  No  one  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  can 
question  their  pre-eminence  in  this  noble  art.  The  proof  of  it  is  found 
in  the  record  that  endureth  forever.  Though  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem 
was  destroyed  before  Greece  became  fully  adorned  with  her  splendid 
architecture,  the  plan  which  had  been  given  by  inspiration  from 
heaven,  and  according  to  which  the  peerless  edifice  was  built,  remains 
written  at  full  length  in  Hebrew  Scriptures.  The  dimensions,  the 
form  and  propf)rtion  of  all  the  parts,  are  described  with  minute  exact- 
ness.    Every  thing  that  could  imp:irt  grandeur,  grace,  .'symmetry,  to 


WHAT    THE    HEBREW    SCRIPTURES    HAVE    WROUGHT,    ETC.  47 

the  art  palace*of  worship,  and  whicli  niado  it  to  l)e  called  for  ages 
"  the  excelleucy  of  beauty,"  was  placed  in  the  imperishable  volume, 
to  be  consulted  by  all  nations  and  in  all  ages. 

Wherever  we  turn,  in  fact,  we  are  forcibly  reminded  of  Israel's 
precious  legacies  to  mankind  in  almost  every  department  of  industry. 
We  must  ever  return  and  sit  at  the  feet  of  those  Hebrew  bards,  who, 
as  teachers,  as  poets,  as  truthful  and  earnest  men,  stand  as  yet  alone — 
unsurraounted  and  unapproached — the  Himalayan  mountains  of  man- 
kind. 

And  why  not  strive  through  the  coming  ages  of  mortal  eternity, 
in  fraternal  concord  and  harmonious  unison  with  all  the  nations  of 
the  globe?  Not  theory  but  practice,  deed  not  creed,  should  be  the 
watchword  of  modern  races,  stamped  with  the  blazing  characters  of 
national  equity  and  unselfish  brotherhood.  Why  not,  then,  admit  the 
scions  of  the  mother  religion,  the  Wandering  Jew  of  myth  and  harsh 
reality,  into  the  throbbing  affections  of  faith-permeating,  equitable 
peoples,  now  inhabiting  the  mighty  hemispheres  of  culture  and  civil- 
ization ? 

It  was  at  Jacob's  historical  well,  we  feel  constrained  to  remind 
the  waverers,  that  three  herds  clamored  to  allay  their  burning  fever- 
thirst  for  tlie  water  of  rejuvenating  life — quenched  by  the  timely  as- 
sistance of  the  patriarch  "Israel,"  who  with  firm,  unhesitating  force 
removed  the  heavy  stone  obstacle  resting  on  its  mouth.  Three  i-elig- 
ions — Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Islam — imbibed  the  liquid  of  en- 
lightenment from  that  virgin  spring  of  truth,  and  yet  they  are  distinct, 
estranged  fi'om  each  other  by  dogmatic  separatism  and  a  fibrous  ac- 
cumulation of  prejudices,  which  yet  awaits  the  redeeming  champion 
of  old,  who,  with  the  Herculean  grasp  of  irrevocable  conviction, 
should  hurl  far  away  the  lead-weight  of  passion  and  bigotry,  of  malice 
and  egotism,  from  the  historical  streams  of  original  truth,  equity,  and 
righteousness.  Three  religious  and  now  many  more  gathered  at  tlie 
sparkling  fountain  of  a  glorious  enterprise  in  the  cause  of  truth,  con- 
gregated beneath  the  solid  splendor  of  a  powerful  throne,  wherein 
reclines  the  new  monarch  of  disenthralling  sentiment — a  glorious  sov- 
ereign of  God-anointed  grace — to  examine  and  to  judge  with  the  im- 
partial scepter  of  Israel's  holiest  emblem — ^justice — the  merits  of  a 
nation  who  are  as  irrepressible  as  the  elements,  as  unconquerable  as 
reason,  and  as  immortal  as  the  starry  firmament  of  eternal  hope.  The 
scions  of  many  creeds  are  convened  at  Chicago's  succoring  Parliament 
of  Religions,  aglow  with  enthusiasm,  imbued  with  the  courage  of  ex- 
piring fear,  electrified  with  the  absorbing  anticipation  of  dawning 
liffht.     The  hour  has  struck!     Will  the  stone  of  abuse — a  burden 


48  THEOLOGY. 

brave  Israel  has  borne  for  countless  centuries — on  thd^  rebellious  well 
of  truth  at  last  be  shivered  into  merciless  fragments  by  that  invention 
of  every-day  philosophy — the  gunpowder  of  modern  war — rational 
conviction;  and  finally — O,  blessed  destiny! — establish  peace  for  all 
faiths  and  unto  all  mankind?     Who  knows? 


THE    DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY   IX    JUDAISM.  49 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  IMMORTALITY  IN  JUDAISM. 

By  rabbi  JOSEPH  8T0LZ,  of  Chicago.  ' 


Man's  personal  immortality  was  always  an  established  belief  in 
Israel.  Throughout  all  his  long  history  we  search  in  vain  for  a  period 
when  this  doctrine  was  not  affirmed,  believed,  or  defended  by  the 
Jew.  Tlie  voluminous  literature  of  Judaism  is  unanimous  ou  the 
subject.  It  has  the  sanction  of  priest  and  prophet,  bard  and  sage,  Rabbi 
and  people.  It  is  confirmed  by  precept  and  by  ritual  practice.  It  is 
supported  by  the  testimony  of  nearly  two  hundred  generations. 

This  assertion,  so  positive  and  unequivocal,  would  not  require 
substantiation  were  it  not  for  the  oft-repeated  statement  that  the  Jews 
believed  not  in  eternal  life.  Yet,  if  modern  researches  prove  that  all 
ancient  nations  and  tribes  believed  in  a  personal  immortality,  and  if 
ethnologists  tell  us  that  no  tribe  so  savage  has  yet  been  found  but  has 
some  conception  of  a  life  after  death  (v.  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture, 
vol.  II,  p.  21),  it  would  indeed  be  surpa^singl}'  strange  that  the  Jews 
alone  should  have  been  ignorant  of  tlie  deathlessness  of  man,  when 
their  fundamental  conception  it  was,  that  man  is  a  duality,  and  that 
what  constituted  the  essence  of  man  was  the  D'*il  DtDtl'X  "  the  breath 
of  life,"  which  God,  The  Eternal  One,  Himself  breathed  into  the  body 

of  clay  (Gen.  i,  27),  hence  a  h^^^^  ^^"^^^  p^^^  " '^  portion  of  God 
Himself,"  a  force  as  deathless  as  God  ;  wherefore  death  could  not  pos- 
sibly have  meant  annihilation,  but  simply  a  separation  of  body  and 
soul,  as  it  is  said  in  Ecclesiastes,  "  and  the  dust  returns  to  the  earth 
as  it  was  and  the  spirit  returns  unto  God  who  gave  it"  (Eccles.  xii, 
7  ;  cf  also  Gen.  xxxv,  18,  and  Jer.  xv,  9).  If,  as  is  demonstrated  in 
the  Anthropological  collection  at  Jackson  Park,  the  primitive  Amer- 
ican Indians  and  the  wild  inhabitants  of  Australia  and  the  Pacific 
Islands  believe  that  death  is  not  the  end  of  man,  how  much  tlie  more 
should  they  have  nursed  that  belief  who  could  conceive  of  the  One, 
Absolute,  Most  Holy  God,  the  loving  Father  of  all  mankind,  who  could 
think  of  revelation,  prophecy,  prayer,  and  providence,  and  who  could 
dream  of  the  day  when  there  would  be  no  more  war  and  all  men  would 
be  united  by  the  bonds  of  love  and  truth  and  justice;  yea,  could 
dream  of  a  World's  Parliament  of  Religions  (Micah  iv).  If  the 
4 


50  THEOLOGY. 

primitive  Chaldeans,  Ass3'i'ians,  aud  Babylonians  could  not  believe  that 
death  ends  all  conscious  existence  (v.  Sayce's  Hibbert  Lectures,  1887, 
pp.  358,  362,  365),  how  could  their  Semitic  brethren*  who  felt  that 
the  soul  was  capable  of  infinite  possibilities,  aud  could  and  should  rise 
on  the  wings  of  holiness  from  the  creature  to  the  child  of  God,  ever 
have  believed  that  death  puts  a  sudden  and  lasting  stop  to  the  devel- 
opment of  man,  no  matter  whether  like  Esau  he  despised  his  birth- 
right and  ate  aud  drank,  for  ou  the  morrow  he  might  die,  or  whether 
like  Jacob  by  dint  of  supreme  self-denial  aud  a  struggle  with  powers, 
divine  and  earthly,  he  rose  fi'om  a  spoiled,  crafty,  selfish  boy  to  the 
dignity  of  a  prophet,  a  champion  of  God? 

Starting  out  from  general  principles,  it  is  simply  impossible  to 
think  that  they  who  conceived  God  as  the  Righteous  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  (Geu.  xviii,  25),  the  moral  Ruler  of  the  Universe  who  rewaixls 
righteousness  and  punishes  guilt  (Ex.  xxxiv,  6.  7),  the  Supreme  Gov- 
ernor to  whom  all  nations  and  individuals  are  i'esponsible  (Exod.  xviii, 
11),  the  All  Good  One  whose  mercy  endureth  forever  (Ps.  cxviii,  1), 
did  not  at  some  period  of  their  history  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that 
there  must  come  a  day  when  all  the  injustices  of  this  earth  will  be 
righted,  when  the  righteous  who  suffered  and  the  wicked  who  pros- 
j)ered  will  be  rewarded  or  i)unished  according  to  their  individual 
merits.     ' 

We  must  consider  the  broad,  unifying  principles  of  Scriptures 
aud  not  bind  ourselves  hand  and  foot  to  isolated  texts  and  disjointed 
metaphors,  a  slavery  which  has  long  been  the  curse  of  religion;  for 
even  tyranny  has  found  texts  to  engrave  upon  her  sword,  and  slavery 
has  carved  them  upon  her  fetters,  aud  cruelty  has  bound  them  to  her 
faggots,  though  freedom  and  love  aud  mercy  are  fundamental  princi- 
ples underlying  the  whole  system  of  Biblical  ethics. 

If  God,  the  Father  (Mai.  ii,  10),  is  eternal  (I  Chron.  xx,  10), 
an  oft-recurring  Biblical  idea  (Exod.  xv,  18;  Deut.  xxxiii,  21  ;  Isai. 
xl,  28;  Ps.  xc,  2),  then  it  is  self-evident  that  man,  the  son  of  God 
(Deut.  xiv,  1),  can  not  perish  like  the  flowers  of  the  field.  If  God, 
the  Creator,  is  eternal,  tlieu  the  child  of  God  that  is  spirit  of  His 
spirit  (Num.  xvi,  22),  life  of  His  life,  and  light  of  His  light  (Ps. 
xxxvi,  10),  that  can  commune  with  Him,  speak  to  Him  face  to  face, 

*  That  the  primitive  Somites  believed  in  thi'  (U-athlcssnoss  of  man  is 
evident  from  their  custom  of  inakinj;  incisions  into  tlie  Hesli,  cutting  ofi' 
the  hair.  an<l  rciiilini:  tlic  ganncnts.  l)y  means  nf  wliicli  the  living  entered 
into  an  cnfluriiig  covenant  with  tiie  dead.  v.  W.  KolxTtson  Smitii's  Lectures 
on  the  Keligion  of  the  Semites,  p]i.  ;504,  etc.,  olT,  etc. 


THE   DOCTRINE   OF   IMMORTALITY    IN    JUDAISM.  .  51 

uuclerstaud  His  divine  message,  behold  His  glory,  walk  in  His  ways, 
and  become  holy  like  Him,  must  be  as  deathless  as  is  the  Source  of  this 
power. 

The  Bible  does  uot  in  so  many  words  draw  this  inference.  It 
takes  it  for  granted  as  a  self-evident  truth,  as  it  takes  for  granted  the 
existence  of  God,  without  ever  attempting  to  prove  it  by  an}'  philo- 
sophical or  scientific  arguments.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  doubt,  even 
though,  for  reasons  that  will  appear  later,  the  Old  Testament  main- 
tains a  discreet  and  commendable  silence  about  the  future  life  ;  for 
like  fossils  that  reveal  to  us  the  condition  of  things  that  existed 
when  none  are  left  to  tell  of  them,  are  there  imbedded  here  and 
there  in  the  old  Scriptures,  traces  of  a  popular  belief  in  life  after 
death  that  reach  down  to  the  very  dawn  of  Hebrew  life. 

When  the  Pentateuch  says  that  "Abraham  went  in  peace  to  his 
fathers"  (Gen.  xv,  15),  though  he  was  not  buried  in  Ur  of  the  Chal- 
dees,  and  that  Aaron  and  Moses  were  "gathered  unto  their  people  " 
(Xumb.  xxvii,  13),  though  their  bodies  were  nut  interred  in  Canaan, 
these  words  can  only  signify  that  death  had  not  annihilated  their  an- 
cestors. Saul  would  never  have  asked  the  witch  of  Eudor  to  conjure 
up  the  spirit  of  Samuel,  long  after  he  had  died,  and  he  would  not  have 
said  to  Saul,  "  To-morrow^  thou  and  thy  sons  will  be  with  me"  (I  Sam. 
xxviii,  19),  had  immortality  not  been  a  general  belief  among  Israel- 
ites. Xor  would  iAloses  have  prohibited  "  inquiring  of  familiar  spirits 
and  communing  with  the  dead"  (Deut.  xviii,  11;  cf.  Isai.  Ixv,  4 ; 
Ps.  cvi,  29)  and  Saul  have  found  it  necessary  to  enforce  the  law  (I 
Sam.  xxviii,  3),  had  the  people  not  believed  in  a  conscious  existence 
after  deatli.  Were  not  a  belief  in  immortality  current,  the  people 
would  not  have  told  of  the  dead  children  Elijah  and  Elisha  re-animated 
by  bringing  the  departed  soul  back  into  the  lifeless  body  (I  Ki.  xvii)  ; 
nor  would  they  have  repeated  the  story  that  Elijali  went  alive  into 
heaven  (II  Ki.  ii,  19)  ;  nor  would  David  have  said  to  his  servants : 
"  I  shall  go  to  him  (his  dead  child),  but  he  shall  not  return  to  me" 
(II  Sam.  xii,  23). 

"  It  is  not  true  that  the  concept  of  immortality  is  unknown  in  the 
Old  Testament,"  says  Schcnkel  in  his  Bibellexikon  (5,  579)  ;  and  in  his 
Bampton  Lectures  on  the  Psalter  (18(S9),  Cheyne  corroborates  the  state- 
ment (pp.  383-409).  The  story  of  "  the  tree  of  life  "  (Gen.  iii,  22) 
attests  a  belief  among  the  Israelites  in  the  possibility  of  escaping  death 
(ibid.,  p.  383).  In  his  last  song  Moses  makes  God  say,  "  I  kill  and  I 
make  alive,  I  have  wounded  and  I  heal"  (Deut.  xxxii,  39)  ;  and  Hannah 
says,  "  The  Lord  killeth  and  maketh  alive,  He  bringeth  low  and  also 
lifteth  up"  (I  Sam.  ii,  7);  Isaiah  declares,   "He  hath  swallowed  up 


52  THEOLOGY. 

death  forever"  { /.  e.,  life  is  eternal),  (xxv,  8) ;  aud  again  he  says,  "The 
dead  sliall  live,  my  dead  bodies  shall  rise.  Awake  and  sing  ye  that  dwell 
in  the  dust,  for  thy  dew  is  as  the  dew  of  the  herbs  and  the  earth  shall 
cast  forth  the  dead"  (xxvi,  19).  Hosea  (vi,  2)  and  Ezekiel  (xxxvii) 
refer  to  a  national  resurrection  (which  of  course  implies  the  possibility 
of  the  resurrection  of  individuals),  and  many  Psalms  (16,  17,  49,  73) 
unmistakably  advance  the  idea  of  a  personal  immortality  and  resur- 
rection, from  the  motive  of  moral  compensation.     In  Proverbs  (xii, 

« 

28)  we  find  the  word  "Al-Maveth  "  (O^lt^'^kN*),  "  immortality  ;"  and 
Job  speaks  of  a  super-mundane  Justice  which  will  one  day  pronounce 
in  favor  of  the  righteous  sufferer  not  only  in  this  world  (xvi,  18.  i9; 
xix,  2.5;  xlii),  so  that  all  may  recognize  his  innocence,  but  also  be- 
yond the  grave,  the  sufferer  himself  being  in  some  undefined  way  brought 
back  to  life  in  the  conscious  enjoyment  of  God's  favor  (xiv,  13.  15; 
xliv,  2(>.  27;  v.  Cheyne's  Psalter,  p.  442).  As  time  advanced,  the  im- 
mortality idea  became  more  and  more  pronounced  and  definite. 
Koheleth  says:  "And  the  dust  shall  turn  to  dust  as  it  was  and  the 
spirit  to  God  who  gave  it"  (xii,  7),  which  Daniel  explains  further  in 
the  words:  "And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  wake,  some  to  everlasting  life  and  some  to  shame  aud  everlasting^ 
contempt"  (xii,  2). 

But  the  development  of  Judaism  did  not  stop  with  the  last  page 
of  the  Bible.  Judaism  is  a  religious  force  penetrating  the  ages,  and 
no  man,  no  book,  no  Temple,  no  Synod,  no  national  catastrophe,  and 
no  persecution  or  oppression  could  ever  stem  or  destroy  it.  The  final 
word  was  not  spoken  when  Malachi  closed  his  lips,  and  there  is  more 
than  a  fly-leaf  between  the  Old  aud  the  Xew  Testaments.  The  in- 
terim is  pregnant  with  development,  aud  many  an  idea  that  was  only 
embryological  in  the  Old  Testament  period,  then  reached  a  fuller  and 
more  pronounced  growth.  Particularly  is  this  the  case  with  the  im- 
mortality-idea. Influenced  by  contact  with  the  Parsees  and  Greeks  as 
well  as  by  the  untoward  political  events  that  brought  so  much  unde- 
served suffering  upon  the  righteous  and  pious,  great  stress  is  henceforth 
laid  upon  the  future  life,  and  the  first  real  attempts  are  made  to  define 
and  describe  it  and  give  it  a  [)liilosoj)liical  expression,. 

The  Apocryphal  book,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  is  a  "gospel  of 
immortality."  "  The  sinner  falleth  and  shall  not  rise,  but  those  that 
fear  the  Lord  -hall  rise  unto  eternal  life  and  their  life  shall  be  in 
the  light  of  the  Lord  and  shall  m^t  fail"  (iii,  13.  Ki).  "The  Lord's 
'  Hasidim  '  shall  iidierit  life  in  gladness;  the  inheritance  of  sinners 
is  Hades  and  darkness  and  destruction"  (xiv,  (>.  7).     "The  sinners 


THE    DOCTRINE   OF    IMMORLALITY    IX   JUDAISM.  53 

shall  perisli  in  the  day  of  ihe  jufltrment  of  tlie  Lord  forever,  but  tliose 
that  fear  the  Lord  sliall  find  mercy  and  shall  live  by  the  compassion 
of  their  God"  (xv,  13.  15).  "They  shall  'live  forever'  not  by 
tasting  ambrosial  fruit  or  following  ritual  practice?,  but  by  '  walking 
in  the  law  wl)ich  God  commanded  us'"  (xiv,  1.  2),  a  i)rinciple  em- 
bodied almost  literally  in  the  second  Benediction  over  the  Law. 

The  Book  of  Enoch,  which  in  the  main  is  of  pre-Christian  ori- 
gin and  belongs  to  the  second  century  B.  C,  not  only  expresses  a  be- 
lief in  immortality,  but  even  describes  quite  minutely  the  future  lot 
of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  (Ch.  xxii,  102,  103;  cf.  Cheyne, 
ibid.,  p.  413;  Schwally's  Das  Leben  nacli  dem  Tode,  p.  148).  The 
second  and  the  fourth  books  of  the  ^Maccabees  tell  how  the  seven 
martyred  brothers  "  live  unto  God  "  and  "  now  stand  before  the  throne 
of  God  and  lead  the  happy  life." 

And  then  to  cap  the  climax,  Josephus  tells  us  .that  already-  in  the 
second  century,  the  doctrine  of  immortality  was  so  prevalent  that 
three  sects  quarreled  about  it.  The  Pharisees  believed  in  future 
rewards  aud  punishments,  and  the  continuance  of  the  soul ;  the  Sad- 
•ducees,  who  lived  in  the  visible  present  and  not  in  an  imagined  future, 
denied  this;  while  tlie  Essenes  believed  that  the  spirits  of  the  righteous 
■would  no  more  be  burdened  with  bodies,  but  would  rejoice  and  mount 
upwards  (Ant.  xviii,  1.  3;  Wars  ii,  8.  14;  cf.  Wise's  Judaism  and 
Christianity,  ]).  71 ;  iii,  5.  8).  Passages  in  the  Targum,  Midrash,  and 
Talmud,  which  are  undeniably  early  traditions,  the  Apocalyptical 
Books,  the  wi'itings  of  Philo  antl  Aristobul,  the  second  of  the  eiirhteen 
Benedictions,  the  second  benediction  over  the  reading  of  the  Thora, 
the  oldest  funeral  service  and  funei-al  rites,  all  furnish  jiositive  pi'oof 
that  a  belief  in  immortality  existed  in  Israel  prior  to  the  time  of  Jesus; 
yes,  the  fact  that  Jesus  and  his  apostles  teach  the  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality in  the  very  words  of  the  Pharisees,  shows  that  it  was  from  Israel 
that  they  derived  this  doctrine,  and  that  even  if  an  innocent  man 
crucified  and  pierced  with  a  spear,  had  not  arisen  after  the  third  day, 
it  would  still  have  been  known  that  death  is  not  the  end  of  man. 
(v.  Wise's  Second  Commonwealth,  p.  260,  and  Proselytizing  Christ- 
ianity, p.  34).  The  resurrection-story  never  hail  a  jxarticle  of  influ- 
ence upon  the  Jew  or  Judaism,  and  yet  the  rabbinical  writings,  from 
beginning  to  end,  are  full  of  allusions  to  the  future  life.  Maimonides 
codified  the  doctrine  in  his  Yad  Hahasaka  (H.  Teshuha,  ch.  viii),  and 
embodied  it  in  ins  creed;  the  medieval  philos  )|)hers  coined  a  new 
word  for  it,  and,  without  exception,  defended  and  defined  it;  the  Kab- 
balists  reveled  in  pictures  of  the  life  to  come;  Closes  Mendelssoiiu 
proved  it  from  his  own  philosophical  standpoint;  and  to  my  knowl- 


54  THEOLOGY. 

edge,  there  is  not  a  iiiiieteeuth  century  Jewish,  orthodox,  or  reform 
preacher,  teacher,  or  author  of  a  catechism  or  prayer-book  that  has 
denied  it.  It  runs  through  the  whole  history  of  Judaism,  through 
every  phase  of  its  development,  from  the  very  beginning  down  to  the 
Pittsburg  Conference,  which  declared  (Art.  vii)  :  "We  re-assert  the 
doctrine  of  Judaism  that  the  soul  is  immortal,  grounding  this  belief 
on  the  divine  nature  of  the  human  spirit  which  forever  finds  bliss  in 
righteousness  and  misery  in  wickedness." 

Just  as  unanimous,  however,  is  the  Jewish  idea  that  the  canon 
of  ethics  and  worship  must  not  be  based  upon  the  doctrine  of  im- 
mortality. '■'  Be  not  like  servants  who  serve  their  master  for  the  sake 
of  the  reward"  (Pirke  Aboth  i),  has  never  been  disputed.  That  is  not 
the  highest  morality  which  does  the  good  for  the  sake  of  future  hap- 
piness or  out  of  fear  for  future  punishment  (v.  ]\Iaim.  H.  Tesh.,  ch. 
x).  Ethics  must  stand  on  a  higher  basis  than  that  of  selfishness.  It 
must  not  be  an  insurance  to  bring  one  into  heaven  or  a  gate  to  keep 
one  out  of  hell.  That  makes  morals  immoral  and  worship  a  blas- 
phemy. 

Xor  must  the  center  of  gravity  be  changed  from  this  world  to 
another  because  there  is  a  life  after  this.  Tiiis  life  is  not  to  be 
shunned  and  our  duties  here  are  none  of  thetn  to  be  slighted  because 
there  is  a  hereafter.  We  have  no  right  to  separate  ourselves  from  so- 
ciety and  seek  seclusion  in  deserts  and  caves;  we  have  no  riglit  to 
mortify  the  flesh  and  make  ourselves  useless  in  this  world  because 
there  is  another  world.  The  Rabbinical  dictum  is  that  "this  world  is 
the  vestibule  to  the  next"  (P.  Aboth  iv,  16),  and  that  "  every  right- 
eous man  will  be  rewarded  according  to  his  own  merits"  (Sab.  152a). 
Our  life  here  fiishions  our  life  hereafter.  That  explains  the  Mosaic 
silence.  ^Nloses,  who  was  an  eye-witness  to  the  frightful  inequalities 
and  injustices  sanctioned  in  Egypt  because  the  whole  stress  of  religion 
was  there  laid  upon  the  otlier  world,  purposely  ignored  the  hereafter, 
so  as  to  inculcate  the  doctrine  that  man  mu.st  perform  his  social  and 
private  duties  in  this  world,  and  seek  perfection  here,  and  then  the 
hereafter  will  take  care  of  itself,  for  it  is  but  a  continuance  of  this  life. 
Describe  it  no  one  cau.  "  The  secret  things  belong  to  the  Lord  our 
God  only,  the  things  revealed  belong  to  us"  (Deut.  xxix,  28).  ?Iu- 
man  intelligence  can  not  comprehend  a  state  of  existence  purely 
spiritual,  wherefore  human  words  can  not  define  the  nature  of  spiritual 
reward  or  punishment,  nor  describe  the  i)lace  where  the  souls  of  the 
departed  abide;  yet  many  Kalibis  li;ive  pictured  to  us  Heaven  and 
Geiienna,  witli  all  their  good  and  liad  spirits,  all  their  spiritual  and 
material  paiir-  and  pleasures.     This  was  the  special  delight  of  mystic 


THE   DOCTRINE   OF    IMMORTALITY    IX    JUDAISM.  00 

minds,  aud  our  literature  is  fall  of  their  queer  luusiugs,  which,  i\v  the 
way,  made  a  much  stronger  impression  upon  Christians  and  Moham- 
medans than  upon  Jews,  because  the  Jewish  rationalists  were  many 
that,  like  R.  Johanan,  repudiated  them  all  as  idle  speculation,  saying 
that  "all  the  prophets  prophesied  about  the  future  of  the  human  fam- 
ily on  earth,  but  as  to  the  state  of  existence  hereafter  no  eye  has  ever 
seen  it  but  God's"  (Ber.  34b).  Vain  is  it  to  attempt  a  description 
of  the  future  life,  and  Maimonides  sums  it  all  up  well  when  he  says: 
"In  the  future  woi-ld  there  is  nothiug  corporeal;  every  thing  is 
spiritual ;  wherefore  there  can  be  no  eating  and  no  drinking,  no 
standing  and  no  sitting  (hence  no  lueal  heaven  aud  no  local  hell). 
These  phrases  are  but  figurative  expressions  to  make  abstract  concep- 
tions concrete  to  chiUlish  minds"  (H.  Tesh.  v.;  cf.  Ber.  17a).  Fu- 
ture joy  is  all  spiritual  joy,  the  happiness  that  comes  from  wisdom 
and  good  deeds;  future  pain  is  all  s})iritual  pain,  the  remorse  for  ig- 
norance and  wickedness.  The  joy  is  eternal,  because  goodness  is 
everlasting;  the  pain  is  temporal,  because  "God  will  not  contend  for- 
ever, neither  will  He  retain  His  anger  to  eternity"  (Ps.  ciii,  9). 

The  Jews  never  taught  the  eternity  of  suffering  and  chastisement. 
They  know  naught  of  endless  retributive  suffering.  Sheol  was  simply 
the  abode  of  the  spirits  of  all  who  died.  An  eternal  hell-fire  was  alien 
to  them.  Some  denied  the  existence  of  Gehenna  altogether  (Ned. 
8b).  Others  said  the  duration  of  its  punishment  was  but  twelve 
months  (K.  H.  15b).  And  others  said  there  was  but  the  span  of  a 
hand's  distance  between  heaven  and  hell,  so  that  it  may  be  very  easy 
for  the  repentant  sinner  to  pass  into  paradise. 

There  was  no  authorized  dogmatic  Jewish  teaching  on  the  subject 
of  endless  punishment ;  the  views  of  each  Rabbi  depended  upon  his 
interpretation  of  Scriptures  and  upon  the  results  of  his  own  reflec- 
tions   (v.    Hamburger's    Real-Encyclo{)adie,    II,    art.     Vergeltung). 

All   are   agreed  without   exception  that  C"'   D^U*'"^  DltDIN  n^DH 

*  t  *  * 

f^DH  D^)^b  p^n  Onb  (cf.  A.  Z.  lOb),  all  of  clean  hands  and  pure 
hearts,  whether  they  are  Jews  or  non-Jews,  whether  it  is  Confucius  or 
Buddha,  Socrates  or  Plato,  Jesus  or  Mohammed,  or  Moses  aud  Isaiah, 
all  that  feel  and  think  aud  act  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  will  ascend 
the  mountain  of  the  Eternal  and  behold  the  eternal  glory  of  God 
there,  where  all  is  not  passive  rest,  but  where  the  pious  can  rise  from 
moral  height  to  moral  height  until  they  approach  the  perfection  of 
God  (Ber.  64b) 


5')  THEOLOGY. 


JUDAISM  AND  THE  SCIExXCE  OF  COMPARATIVE  RELIGIONS. 

Bv  IJABBI  LOULS  GROSSMAN,  D.D.,  DP:TR0IT,  MICHIGAN. 


I  ciiu  not  tell  how  others  who  have  spoken  here  iu  this  Jewish 
section  have  felt,  and  I  will  not  take  it  upon  myself  to  criticise  in 
advance  those  of  the  other  denominations  wluj  are  likely  to  take  the 
platform  after  iis  ;  but  I  imagine  the  most  of  them  will  be  under  the 
impression  that  they  ought  on  this  special  occasion  to  say  only  such 
things  as  they  believe  to  be  final,  and  remembering  that  this  Congress 
suggests  a  retrospect  of  four  hundred  years,  they  are  probably  dis- 
posed to  emphasize  those  matters  which  they  judge  to  be  earnings  of 
these  Centuries  and  which  they  believe  to  be  incontrovertible  facts  of 
religion  up  till  now.  Of  course  there  is  quite  a  latitude  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the.mental,  surely  of  the  sentimental,  coin  of  an  age  which 
circulates  and  sustains  mental  intercourse;  I  can  not  help  feeling  a  mild 
degi-ee  of  that  sanie  distrust  against  such  a  gratuitous  nndertaking 
which  has  caused  so  much  mischief  iu  less  critical  times  ;  in  fact,  in 
all  the  history  of  religions.  Fc'r  who  can  determine  what,  after  all,  is 
only  a  vague  desideratum,  and  who  can  say  with  any  sort  of  precision 
what  is  felt  and  believed  by  a  multitude?  One  of  the  most  uusatis- 
factorv  things  in  the  world  is  a  snap-shot  photograj)!!  of  the  world's 
mind.  Thought  is  fluid,  and  when  we  speak  of  habits  and  tempera- 
ments, of  convictions  and  principles,  we  ought  to  know  that  we  are 
speaking  of  matters  which  are  largely  convenient  fictions.  There  is  a 
modern  scholasticism  which  is  not  much  less  professional  and  which  is 
as  tradesmanlike  as  that  of  notorious  memory.  All  that  we  know  is 
history,  biography,  facts.  Motives  elude  our  detective  philoso- 
j)hv  to-day  as  they  ever  did,  and  the  analysis  of  them  is  as  abstract  a 
piece  of  work  just  as  regrettably  to-day  as  it  was  a  fatal  piece  of 
gues>-work  in  the  age  of  witchcraft.  We  still  scent  spirits  every- 
where. 

V/e  are  not  entirely  helpless,  however,  to  establish  what  are  the 
subtle  facts  of  society.  We  can  not  dig  out  of  the  bo.?om  of  people 
with  all  our  theological  acumen  the  ore  of  their  precious  life  as  miners 
dig  from  the  bowels  of  theeaith,  but  somehow  all  poi)ular  thought  and 
all  popular  feeling  l)ecome  manifest.  It  is  the  same  old  story  ;  mys- 
tery is  a  defiant  giant.     We  close  witli    it   at  first  in   an   exasperated 


JUDAISM    AND    THE    SCIENCE    OF   COMI'AKATIVE    ItEhlGIONS.  57 

Struggle,  perhaps  we  succeed  in  inaiiacling  liim,  aud  we  think  we 
have  overcome  liiin  because  we  have  bound  him;  but  we  may  liave 
his  body,  we  have  noi  his  will  ;  we  have  his  submission,  not  his  co- 
operation ;  just  as  tyrants  have  the  slavishness  of  their  subjects,  not 
their  manhood.  Neither  compromise  nor  bribery  accompUsh  mucli  ; 
persuasion,  justice,  and  h)ve  are  the  final  and  real  couquerors.  The 
history  of  theology  is  a  history  of  policy,  of  fight,  of  truce,  of  Jesuit- 
ism, of  enslaving  and  of  enslaved.  The  theologians  arrogate  to  tliem- 
selves  a  precarious  domination,  but  tlie  word  finally  dominates  them. 
The  disengaged  fiction  is  ungovernable  ;  the  haunting  fancy  is  vin- 
dictive. None  of  us  can  afford  to  be  positive.  There  are  royal  laws 
in  this  ordered  world  ;  but  there  are  also  imperial  as  well  as  imperious 
exigencies.  Truth  is  administrative,  not  tyrannical,  and  all  around 
us  are  myriad  instances  of  adaptation  and  of  accommodation,  of  com- 
promise, of  the  ideal,  which  ought  to  be,  with  a  practice,  which  can  be. 

lustitutions  are  precipitates  of  movements  of  mind.  The  sewing 
machine,  the  steam  engine,  the  tele])hone,  the  altar,  the  temple,  the 
church,  the  painting,  the  statue,  and  the  pantheon,  the  flute  of  the 
shepherd,  the  church-choral  and  the  oratorio,  are  historical  facts  of 
social  psychology.  The  world  needed  more  expeditious  work,  wanted 
to  release  many  plodding  laborers  from  employment  as  unprofitable  as 
it  was  degrading,  wished  to  beautify  life  for  the  multitude  and  to  en- 
noble it  aud  to  add  power  to  it,  and  to  vitalize  tlie  communities,  and 
the  world  got  the  labor-saving  machines,  the  life-saving  institutions 
and  quickening  and  enricliing  inventions.  Tlie  people  supplied  what 
the  people  needed.  Tlie  history  of  want  is  implied  into  histoiy  of  in- 
vention and  discovery.  Not  that  the  ))eople  was  conscious  definitely 
of  what  it  needed,  but  the  subtle  factors  of  society  gave  birth  to  the 
fact.  The  vague  experimentalism  of  an  epoch  at  last  comes  upon  a 
thing  it  has  dreamt  of  and  for  which  it  has  yearned,  and  the  presenti- 
ment, undefined  yet  strong,  has  its  fulfillment  like  an  oracle  whose 
words  grow  out  of  mystery  into  sense. 

Let  us  never  speak  of  a  religion  as  if  it  were  a  final  thing,  which 
the  I'easou  of  man  has  established  as  unalterable.  I  fear  the  pretty 
notion  of  revelation  has  misled  us.  We  have  enlarged  the  pi-imeval 
fancies,  but  we  have  not  improved  on  them.  As  soon  as  we  begin 
to  gauge  our  sentiments,  we  depreciate  them.  It  makes  no  difference 
Avhether  we  credit  absolute  value  to  our  favorite  religion  or  are  more 
modest  and  content  ourselves  with  a  discreet  contiast  of  it  with 
other  religious.  We  ought  to  tolerate  neither  a  monopoly  nor  a  tariff 
on  truth. 

Judaism  can  not  be  charjred  with  ever  iiaving  been  extravagantly 


58  THEOLOGY. 

self-assertive.     The  spirit  of"  assumption  is  foreign  to  Jewish  thought. 
Throughout  the  extent  of  Jewish  history,  there  is  not  one  period  of 
intense  dogmatism.     The  policy  of  legislation  which  Moses  pursued 
was  in  the  interest  of  national  integrity,  more  than  for  a  domineering 
priest-religion.     The  origin  of  the  new  sect  of  Christianity  right  out 
of  the  heart  of  Judaism  was  attended  with  less  throes  than  ever  at- 
tended a  like  momentous  birth.     The  contagion  of  medieval  zealotry 
never  could  inoculate  Jewish  earnestness  with   more  tlian  a  passing 
spasm  of  foolish   disseutions  of  a  handful  of  Talmudists  against    a 
handful    of    Maimouidians.      Nowhere,    neither   iu    ancient    nor   in 
modern,  not  even  in  recent  polemics,  as  soon  as  Jewish  thought  and 
life  had  assumed  a  character  of  its  own,  was  there  any  division  in 
Judaism  as  to  what  in  dogmatic  terminology  we  call  articles  of  faith. 
The  differences  of  opinion  were  rather  as  to  system  and  classification 
than  as  to  fact,  and  all  sides  deferred  to  the  common  tradition,  that 
absolute  truth  may  be  stated,  but  must  never  be  legislated.     "  I  am 
the  Lord  thy  God,"  the  ten  commandments  declare,  but  do  not  en- 
join.    Perhaps,   in  no  more  distinctive  matter   than  this,  the  differ- 
ence between  Judaism  and  Christianity  is  clear.     The  Bible  in  Juda- 
ism is  a  source  of  august  legislation  ;  to  the  Talmudists  it  was  the 
source.     To  Christianity  it  is  more ;   to  all  scliools  of  its  thouglit  and 
in  all  its  sects  the  Bible  is  the  origin  and  the  finality  of  thought-life. 
Not  so  among  Jews.     You  will  remember  how  the  Talmud  exercises 
itself  over  the  problem  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  a  problem  at 
once  sentimental  as  well  as  philosophic  (as  such  theosopliic  notions 
generally  are).     But  in  all  the  desperate  attempts  there  made  to  dis- 
cover in,  and  even  to  import  some  suggestions  of  it  into,  the  text,  the 
Rabbis  intimate   that   they  would  feel  themselves  amply  content  if 
they  could  procure  tlie   l)iblical  prestige  for  the  doctrine,  they  never 
aspire  to  ari'ogate  to  it  authority  by  showing  its  biblical  authenticity. 
We,  who  have  been  disciplined  in  modern  ways  of  thought,  may  find 
it  difficult  to  think  ourselves  into  the  economy  of  a  sect  which  foregoes 
authority  as  to  belief     Nevertheless,  it   is  true,   Judaism  has  never 
enforced   faith.     Jewish    Ministers    are  often    called    upon    to  define 
Judaism,  and  the  large  number  of  them  respond  by  giving  the  history 
of  Jewish  thcjught;  but  if  we  were  frank,  we   would,  without   hesita- 
tion, confess  that  literally  there  is  no  such  thing  possible  as  a  Jewish 
Catechism.     Every  codification  of  Jewish  principles  has  met  with  op- 
position ;  every  statement  of  them  has  been  received  willi  distrust  by 
some  if  not  with   jiositive  disfavor  ;  and  Jewish   Synods  have  never 
established  any  thing  except  that  which  the  laity  had  anticipated  by 
self-assumed  validity,  tolerated  too  long  to  be  dislodged.     I\'rha])s  the 


JUDAISM    AND   THE   SCIENCE    OF    COMPARATIVE    RELIGIONS.  59 

notoriety  of  the  abortive  Pittsbui-sr  Cnifcrence  has  its  explanation  in 
this. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  contemporary  discussions  among 
Jews  between  orthodoxy  and  reform  (divisions  which  are  as  ancient  as 
thought  is)  circle  about  practice — church-practice,  temple-practice — 
and  con)paratively  less  about  dogma  and  articles  of  belief,  certainly 
with  a  lesser  degree  of  severity  and  precision.  The  famous  dispute 
between  Gamaliel,  the  Nassi,  and  Rabbi  Joshua,  and  that  between  the 
followers  of  Nachmanides  and  of  jNIaimonides,  if  we  lay  bare  the  real 
facts  which  the  denunciations  now  reported  to  us  suggest;  the  im- 
passioned rigor  of  Bernays  in  Hamburg  and  of  Herschel  in  London  ; 
and  most  noticeably  the  vapid  airings  we  are  victimized  by  in  the  cur- 
rent Jewish  press — all  point  not  only  to  the  fatal  foibles  incident  to 
theological  disputations,  in  which  the  Jewish  instances  share  with  the 
rest  of  denominational  fanatics,  but  more  so  to  tiie  philosophical  fact 
that  there  is  in  Judaism  an  entire  absence  of  an  accentuation  by  any 
mutually  recognized  authority  wliat  are  and  forever  must  be  the  in- 
controvertible and  substantially  absolute  doctrines  of  our  faith.  The 
convenient,  though  otherwise  quite  unimpugned  and  of  course  decidedly 
reverend,  "  hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God,  God  is  one,"  smacks  of 
controversialism.  We  are  too  unclear  when  and  how  it  originated  and 
■what  is  its  exact  meaning,  and  we  are  not  entirely  agreed  whether  we 
can  accept  it  as  a  satisfactory  statement  in  any  final  way,  either  of 
Jewish  transcendentalism  or  of  the  Jewish  spirit  of  religiousness. 

We  have  then  here  a  phenomenon,  the  like  of  which  we  would 
search  for  in  vain  among  the  many  religions  which  have  been  active 
in  the  history  of  the  world  with  any  similar  degree  of  influence.  We 
must  remember  that  Judaism  has  exerted  an  undeniable  influence  on 
almost  tlie  wliole  world,  and  does  still  exert  influence,  at  least  by  the 
proxy  of  Christianity,  despite  its  aversion  to  system  and  catechism, 
and  that  it  has  thriven  in  the  heart  of  the  Jewish  people  with  a  vital- 
ity which  is  the  wonder  of  the  world.  There  is  something  instinctive 
about  the  Jewish  temperament,  and  the  domestic  and  social  affiliations 
of  the  Jews.  The  solidarity  of  the  Jewish  people  has  been  impertur- 
bable, and  this  fact,  eminent  in  itself,  grows  into  proportions  beyond 
conventional  explanations,  when  we  consider  tiiat  this  faithfulness  to 
tradition  and  this  sincerity  and  closeness  of  sentiment  are  supreme, 
though  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  is  as  wide  as  the  extent  of  empires 
and  as  diverse  as  the  genius  of  nations,  and  that  this  unity  has  been 
accomplished  and  is  maintained  not  by  the  administration  from  some- 
where and  by  some  one.  Wliat  I  wish  to  emphasize  in  keeping  the 
thread  of  our  thought  is,  that  no  prescription  of  belief  has  done  this, 


60  '  THEOLOGY, 

that  there  has  beeu,  in  foct,  an  unhampered  freedom,  a  multifarious- 
uess  of  individual  views,  which  would  have  wrecked  many  other  de- 
nominations, and  in  fact  has  wrecked  many.  This  diversity  of  opin- 
ions has  been  respected  and  has  been  deferred  to  with  a  readiness  such 
as  the  Fathers  of  the  Church  would  have  chuckled  over  to  the  infinite 
felicitv  of  their  do2:matic  souls. 

Many  a  magazine  writer  has  indulged  a  harmless  sensation  by 
provoking  the  discussion  on  "What  is  Judaism  ?"  Tlie  ])robably  well- 
meaning  questioner,  however,  brings  upon  himself  often  the  derision 
of  the  malevolent  and  the  pity  of  the  thoughtless.  Frankness  is  often 
perverted  and  tolei'ation  is  a  burdensome  virtue.  Tlie  questioner  is 
sincere  enough  and  suggestive  enough.  Perhaps  it  is  the  glory  of  a 
denomination  that  it  can  constantly  readjust  itself  to  new  conditions, 
that  it  can  enfranchise  itself  readily  in  the  new  liberalism,  when  it 
hears  the  trumpet  sound  for  fraternization  with  the  family  of  the 
faiths  with  willing  ear,  perhaps,  that,  unincumbered  by  the  burden 
of  a  pretentious  "absoluteness,  it  can  naturalize  itself  as  a  citizen  in  the 
republic  of  tliought.  Perhaps,  free  from  the  exactions  of  a  repressive 
despotism,  it  can  feel  the  thrill  soonest  whicii  shall  some  day  send  new 
vigor  through  the  blood  and  tissue  of  natural  associations.  Perhaps 
Judaism,  exactly  in  this  and  exectly  at  this  time,  when  faiths  are 
tested  as  never  before  they  were  tested,  makes  good  the  claim  which  it- 
has  made  for  so  many  centuries,  that  it  is  the  religion  of  priestliness 
and  that  all  the  ])eople  are  priests.  Lastly,  perhaps  just  because  of 
this  felicitous  absence  of  all  preclusive  and  exclusive  teaching,  Juda- 
ism can  olfei'  i)roof  of  its  true  meiit  and  its  acceptableness  now  more 
than  ever.  For  the  faiths  are  dwindling  away  in  numbers  and  in 
])restige;  autliority  is  taken  from  some  because  they  abused  it,  from 
others  because  they  might  al)use  it,  from  some  because  they  have  f  )r- 
feited  their  right  to  ride,  having  shown  that  they  are  slaves  them- 
selves, from  others  because  they  manifest  a  lamentable  lack  of  in- 
siglit  such  as  statesmen  ought  to  liave  into  social  needs,  social  move- 
ments, and  social  exigencies.  Tiiey  failed  because  they  leaned  upon  a 
reed  which  pierced  their  hands  up  to  tiie  veiy  l)one.  Contracts  were 
written  so  long  as  mutual  confidence  was  impossihk\  To-day,  liils  of 
paper  pass  from  hand  to  hand  as  matters  of  reliable  honor,  and  integ- 
rity has  made  them  into  coin.  So  constitutions  are  written  ;  the  pub- 
lic conscience  then  takes  them  out  of  jNIagna  Charta  and  writes  them 
into  the  heart  of  nations.  ^Vc  do  not  need  jiaper;  we  need  blood. 
So  also  tlie  sects  needed  tlie  creed,  to  make  possible  a  sectarian  integ- 
rity. P)iit  wo  want  a  free  religiousness.  Dogmas  are  words,  and 
■words   must   never  manacle   reason.      Freedom   is  never  a   risk.     The 


JUDAISM    AND    THE   SCIENCE    OF   COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.  61 

coils  of  rhetoi'ic  have  eiDbarnissed  men  loiicc  enouffl).  Dofrmas  are 
the  ingenuities  of  unpractical  pedants.  Some  day,  perhaps,  we  shall 
classify  trauscendeutalisiu  as  a  delirious  exhaltation,  intense  hut 
morbid. 

Definition  is  the  death  of  thought.  It  has  been  said  liy  those  who 
take  comfort  from  contrasts  that  Christianity  has  shown  a  wtalth  of  ac- 
commodation in  the  history  of  its  teaching,  and  in  the  way  it  has  natu- 
ralized among  divers  nations  and  climates;  and  it  has  been  cited  as 
one  of  the  evidences  of  its  universality.  Judaism,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  has  been  alleged,  is  tribal.  By  that  is  meant  that  it  ha*  had  potency 
in  one  people  only  ;  that  its  compass  has  never  gone  beyond  that  of  the 
Jewish  people,  and  that  Judaism,  from  the  beginning  up  to  the  pres- 
ent, and,  as  is  evident  from  the  peculiar  tenacity  of  the  race,  it  will 
likely  forever  persist  to  be  an  isolated  phenomenon.  And  that,  it  is 
claimed,  is  a  weakness,  and  not  a  strength. 

It  is  true  no  Jew  has  ever  shown  eagerness  for  proselyting,  though 
the  first  missionaries,  and  probably  the  most  eminent  among  all  mis- 
sionaries who  ever  lived,  were  Jews.  It  is  true,  also,  that  Christianity 
presents  not  only  an  eventful  but  a  checkered  history.  At  no  periiid 
during  the  centuries  fronj  the  oiigin  to  the  present  has  the  Christian 
world  been  unanimous.  There  has  been  no  time  in  which  the  Christian 
church  was  not  disrupted  by  sectarian  disputes.  It  is  also  true  that 
the  spirit  of  denomination  has -had  along-continued  luxuriance,  the 
noisome  growth  of  which  has  been  any  thing  but  an  unmixed  benefit. 
The  theologies  of  the  church  are  as  manifold  as  the  national  habitats 
in  which  they  have  thriven,  and,  in  order  to  be  fair,  we  must  admit 
the  fact  that  religion  is  often  called  upon  to  do  political  service  in  the 
furtherance  of  sociological  aims.  But  we  must  remember  that  it  is 
not  Christianity  w-hich  has  promoted  the  intimacies  between  foreign 
nations,  and  that  it  is  surelv  not  to  be  credited  with  being  the  source 
of  a  modern  spirit  of  internationalism.  That  did  not  come  from  the 
church,  nor  through  the  church,  but  in  spite  of  the  church.  In  fact, 
Romanism,  eclesiasticism  and  state  churches  were  fatal,  not  only  to  in- 
dividualism and  the  freedom,  without  which  there  cau  be  no  religious- 
ness, but  they  have  been  n  bar  to  a  wholesome  interchange  and  inter- 
communication in  the  open  world  of  thought.  Nothing  contributes 
more  toward  keeping  England  insular  than  the  Westminster  Confes- 
sion ;  and  the  Catholic  Church,  or  the  Protestant  Church,  or  the  Uni- 
versalist  Church,  each  in  its  degree,  is  a  dissolvent  of  the  body  politic 
and  of  the  great  fraternity  of  the  nations. 

Judaism,  it  is  said,  depends  for  its  life  upon  the  solidarity  of  the 
Jewish  people.     Into  what  other  soil  would  you  plant  religion,  if  n-ot 


62  THEOLOGY. 

into  the  affections  aud  instincts  of  the  people?  From  where  else  shall 
come  its  vitality?  What  a  force  must  that  religion  be,  and  how  psy- 
chologically correct,  which  maintains  a  bond  of  sympathy  so  strong 
aud  indissoluble,  and  for  so  long,  as  the  bond  has  been  between  Jews, 
aud  which  has  sustained  them  through  no  elaborate  organization  or 
centralized  administration.  I  doubt  whether  in  the  whole  range  of 
religious  variations  there  is  another  denomination  with  so  insignificant 
an  equipment  for  denominational  government.  We  have  to-day  in 
this  country  about  a  million  of  Jews,  but  no  head  for  their  ecclesiasti- 
cal goverunKnt,  nor  an  authority  over  them  to  establish  doctrine. 
Some  people  are  so  imitative  in  their  disposition  that,  observing  all 
around  them  that  the  churches  and  sects  have  each  a  complicated  or- 
ganization and  a  canonical  government,  and  seeing  that  we  Jew^s  are 
orphaned  of  the  like,  deplore  it,  and  regret  what  they  call  the  latitudi- 
narian  license  rampant  among  us.  But  they  do  not  understand  Juda- 
ism. It  has  never  tolerated  task-masters,  and  its  synods  have  never 
originated  a  single  doctrine.  For,  if  they  had  undertaken  to  prescribe 
and  impose  matters  of  belief,  such  is  tlie  moral  health  and  mental  acu- 
men aud  the  spiritedness  of  the  Jew,  he  would  have  resented  the  med- 
dling. The  fact  is,  theological  disputes  never  arise  in  a  religious  sect 
save  when  there  is  a  denominational  crisis.  Let  us  never  forget  that 
when  freedom  is  taken  frou)  some  one,  be  it  taken  only  from  one,  the 
whole  community  is  dishonored  and  enslaved.  There  is  nothing  which 
the  Jew  has  felt  more  keenly  by  an  instinct  which,  I  suppose,  is  too 
natural  to  be  accounted  for,  than  that  a  man  is  inviolable,  not  only  as 
to  the  property  of  his  goods,  but  also  as  to  the  possessions  of  his  mind, 
and  to  the  integrity  of  his  person.  This  guarded  self-respect  and 
cheerfully  rendered  deference  breeds  mutual  justice,  and  upon  this  rock 
alone  a  church  can  be  liiiilt. 

We  can  estimate  the  value  of  a  faith,  and  perhaps  even  its  valid- 
ity, by  determining  how  much  it  contributes  to  the  radical  discipline 
of  the  peo])le,  how^  it  maintains  the  vigor  of  the  national  life. 

Eeligion  is  a  sociological  fact,  and  the  religious  tension  of  a  na- 
tion is  one  of  its  re-enforcing  or  depressing  factors,  according  to  the 
quality  of  its  soul-life.  The  day  is  gone  by  when  we  can  settle  the 
validity  of  a  religion  by  a  rule  in  mathematics  or  by  a  pretty  syllogism. 
We  have  taken  the  crown  from  many  heads,  and  we  know,  also,  that 
the  world's  pulses  beat  with  a  healthier  logic  than  tliat  of  priests  aud 
confessors.  It  is  what  a  religion  does  for  the  world  which  validates  it; 
how  it  serves,  not  merely  by  the  inspiration  of  its  great  men  (though 
the  caliber  of  its  geniuses  and  how  many  it  has  given  to  the  world 
ought  to  go  for  something),  but   by  the  plodding  of  its  unpretentious 


JUDAISM    AND   THE   SCIENCE   OF    COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.  63 

laity.     Do   not   misunderstand   nie.     I  do  not   mean  what  preachers 
mean  when  they  deliver  unctions  honiiletics.     In   what  degree  the 
members  of  a  sect  live  up  consistently  to  the  indoctrination  of  their 
church,   is,   of   course,   a   matter  of  moment.      Whether  or  not  the 
moral  system  of  a  denomination  is  philosophically  just  and  logically 
acceptable,  and  even  practical  and  business-like,  is  decidedly  an  item 
of  importance  which  none  can  afford  to  ignore,  least  of  all  the  adher- 
ents of  them.     But  beyond  the  question  of  reliability,  beyond  consid- 
erations which  properly  belong  to  students  and   to   such  as  are  pre- 
occupied with   conventional  standards    of    belief,  is   the  item,  what 
sort  of  social  contribution  does  religion,  or  do  religions,  or  does  any 
specific  religion,  make  to  the  life  of  the  world?     Religion,  if  it  is  any 
thing  like  a  public  factor,  is  ingrained  into   the   moods  and   tempera- 
ment of  the  people,  and  its  peculiar  spirit  is  organized  in  all  the  social 
establishments  wdiich  it  has  built  up.     The  architecture  of  Egypt  is  as 
distinct  from  the  dignified  architecture  of  Greece  as  the  heavy  and 
clumsy  faith  of  the  one  is  different  from  the  bright  and  genial  religion 
of  the  other.     And  the  castes  which  divide  off  families  there  are  not 
more  indigenous  to  the  soil  along  the  Nile  than  are  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  and  the  Sarcophagi  in  the  Pyramids.     The  bravery  of  Mucins 
Scaevola  is  weird  and  madly  faithful ;   but  no  less  appalling  and  sinis- 
ter is  the  Roman   spirit  in   all  other  things.     The  legislation  of  the 
later  republic  has  become  fundamental  in  modern  codices.     The  Ro- 
mans had  a  keen  sense  for  organization  and  order,  wdiich  was  nursed 
by  every  citizen  in  his  home  under  the  shadow  of  the  Penates.     The 
spirit  of  Judaism  is  manifested  by  the  domestic  virtues  and  the  law- 
abiding  sense  of  the  JeW'S.     Persecution  cultivated  a  spirit  of  humility 
and  the  capacities  of  martyrdom,  and  emancipation  and  the  deliver- 
ance from  harrassing  restraints  freed  the  native  brightness  of  the  Jews 
and  helped  them  at  once  to  earn  bread  and  fame.     The  same  influences 
which  endowed  fathers  and  mothers  with  a  sentimental   purity,  which 
nothing  could  taint,  made  the  blood  rush  with  quickened  energy  when 
the  avenues  of  commerce,  of  professions,  of  public  service,  opened  for 
employment  and  the  ambitions  were  aroused. 

We  have  too  narrow  a  view  of  ethics.  We  are  still  in  the  arena 
of  thought  and  sentiment  wdien  we  talk  of  morals.  The  facets  to  a 
moral  fact  are  many.  Morals  are  the  sura  total  of  characteristics,  not 
only  as  to  how  men  conducted  theraselves^when  they  had  dealings 
with  one  another ;  not  only  when  they  in  common  gave  expression  to 
a  common  joy  or  to  a  common  grief  or  to  a  common  indignation  or  to 
a  common  enthusiasm  ;  not  only  in  national  poetry  or  literature  or 
game  of  war,  but  also  by  the  silent   facts  of  institutions  and  tools. 


G4  THEOLOGY. 

The  knife,  for  instauce,  as  a  tool,  is  a  chapter  of  the  history  of  morals 
as  well  as  industrial  ism.  The  sharp  blade  of  the  savage,  our  table 
knife  ;  the  straw  matting,  the  downy  bed  ;  the  turf-covered  hut  and 
the  house  with  paneled  walls  and  frescoed  ceiling — report  morals  as 
much  as  convenience.  We  interpret  archaeological  finds  in  caves  and 
mounds  as  suggestions  of  something  besides  mechanical  ingenuity  men 
had  in  tlie  pre-historic  days.  The  spade,  the  tuoi  of  the  industrious, 
belongs  to  religious  history  as  much  as  to  economic.  Conversely, 
every  religious  custom  and  ritual  reflects  the  social  status  of  the  peo- 
ple;  culture  and  worship  are  interdependent.  You  will  never  find 
sacerdotalism  except  when  notions  of  right  by  the  grace  of  God  pre- 
vail;  and  the  "Rights  of  Man  "  contravene  as  much  the  traditional 
sovereignty. of  the  church  as  of  the  state.  We  can  almost  safely  de- 
duce from  the  specific  tone  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  what  must  have 
been  the  political  status  of  the  Israelites,  in  which  it  had  its  birth  as 
well  as  its  life.  Some  day  we  may  be  able  to  construct  from  the  data 
which  we  have  in  great  araj)litude  of  the  ricii  and  varied  history  of 
the  Jewish  people,  ever  since  tlie  dispersion  out  of  Palestine  into  the 
world,  a  i-eliable  soul-picture  of  Judaism.  A  given  custom  will  fur- 
nish a  more  exact  portrait  of  Jewish  psychohjgy,  and  disclose  for  us 
the  mind  and  morals  of  the  Jew  with  more  relief,  than  would  all  the 
professional  dissertations  on  the  subject  and  scholastic  analyses  we 
have  had  as  yet  of  it.  The  endless  ;lifl^erences  between  reformers  and 
orthodo.^,  wlien  sifted,  amount  to  a  disdainful  deprecation  on  the  one 
side,  and  unintelligent  laudation  on  the  other,  of  something,  the  exact 
nature  of  which  neither  conservatives  nor  radicals  have  grasped.  A 
domestic  right  or  a  popular  custom,  or  a  Synagogue  ritual,  is  an  item  of 
history,  but  it  is  also  what  the  national  or  communal  or  denomina- 
tional spirit  has  preci[)itated  into  some  form  or  habit.  What  for  want 
of  a  better  word  we  call  the  religious  sense  unfolds  itself  into  church- 
forms  and  civil  customs.  He  who  summarily  brushes  them  away  as 
meaningless,  as  well  as  he  who  sweeps  them  together  as  precious,  is 
little  aware  how  customs  reveal  a  former  living  thougiit.  The  recu- 
perative powers  of  the  social  organism  depend  upon  such  storage  of  the 
popular  affections  which  has  been  laid  away  as  hidileu  energy. 

We  shall  have  to  revise  our  notions  of  revelation.  I  deem  this 
an  eminently  felicitous  occasion.  We  have  for  a  lung  time  clung  to  a 
too  restrictive  scope  of  the  i<lea  of  revelation.  The  untutored  man 
implieil  l)y  it  a  gue.ss  of  the  grand.  He  had  come  upon  many  a 
thornbush  all  aglow  with  a  mystic  message,  and  dared  not  approach 
nearer  to  it.  We,  too,  have  prof.uud  visions;  our  legislation  is  a 
•farce  and  insincere,  unless  we  have  as  prototype  a  state  of  order  and 


JUDAISM    AND   THE   SCIENCE   OF   COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.  65 

a  community  in  peace.  Our  theologies  are  impertinences,  unless  we 
have  the  ideal  of  piety.  Socialism,  ethics,  politics,  all  pre-condition  a 
sort  of  Utopian  hope.  Of  course  we  fall  short  of  these  high  aims.  We 
say  God  gave  the  ten  commandments  from  the  top  of  Mount  Sinai. 
But  we  know  that  the  whole  world  is  even  at  this  late  day  far  from 
a  complete  ohedience  to  them.  The  magnificent  visions  into  the  har- 
mony of  the  universe,  into  the  unity  of  the  races,  into  the  justice  of 
the  world,  into  the  moraluess  of  fate,  poets  and  legislators  and  the 
popular  instinct  share  alike.  From  the  cleft  of  the  rock,  shaded  from 
the  dazzling  brightness  of  a  divine  illumination,  each  man  sees  a 
vision  of  his  own.  The  whole  world  is  revealing  and  all  men  are 
seers  ;  you  say  this  is  pantheism.  I  hope  we  are  out  of  scholastic 
tournaments  by  this  time.  Philosophy,  poetry,  the  songs  of  nations, 
their  frolic  and  their  wails,  and  their  mobs,  and  their  armies,  their 
tranquillity,  and  their  rebellious,  all  develop  subtle  facts.  My  neigh- 
bor is  an  artisan  ;  he  has  made  a  piece  of  furniture,  and  he  says:  I 
am  nothing  but  a  tradesman.  But  the  whole  nation  speaks  through 
him.  His  trade,  the  work  he  is  demanded  to  do,  is  a  pulse  of  the 
nation.  His  skill  is  the  wit  of  the  nation  ;  his  life  is  the  wave  of  the 
vast  throb  of  the  great  social  system.  Plane  and  saw,  inventions  and 
discoveries  of  the  race,  centuries  of  industry,  have  served  him  in  the 
single  bit  of  work  he  does.  The  world-spirit  gives  birth  to  the 
Homunculus. 

Even  speech,  that  second  soul  of  man,  that  pilgrims  across  con- 
tinents, making  brothers  of  nations,  reveals.  The  language  of  the 
world  is  the  most  reverent  symbol  of  life  we  have.  Every  sound 
which  now  bridges  mind  with  mind  and  fraternizes  the  world,  is  revela- 
tion. And  there  are  so  many  languages.  There  is  not  one  sentiment 
which  we  share  in  common  but  is  coined  into  speech  and  binds  the 
race  more  closely.  That  which  makes  manifest  a  common  truth  is 
biblical.     The  oracle,  therefore,  is  given  us  from  many  tripods. 

I  can  readily  understand  how  the  natural  instinct  led  the  early 
man  to  people  the  world  with  Gods.  The  Bible  speaks  of  the  Sun  in 
his  majesty  ;  Homer  seats  him  upon  Mt.  Parnassus. 

The  presence  of  the  inexhaustible  overawes  the  mythology  of  a 
people,  is  as  logical  as  it  always  is  beautiful.  The  contemplatif)n  of 
the  grand  aud  the  unusual  is  a  synonym  for  revelation  in  the  tradi- 
tional sense  of  the  word.  To-day  we  must  learn  to  perceive  deliver- 
ances of  the  world-spirit  from  the  common  and  from  that  which  passes 
by  us  every  day  and  every  night.  Not  alone  from  rocks  and  woods, 
from  Sun  aud  Moon.  Schelling  said  that  if  we  suppose  that  God 
communicated  religion  to  man,  we  would  also  have  to  sujjpose  that 
5 


66  -  THEOLOGY. 

there  \t&s  a  time  when  man  had  no  religion,  and  consequently  that 
man  was  originally  atheistic.  It  would  then  he  hard  to  understand 
how  an  atheistic  person  could  have  been  susceptible  to  such  a  revela- 
tion. Prof.  Tylor  tells  us  how  by  nature  we  are  disposed  to  feel  as  if 
the  whole  world  and  every  thing  in  it  were  alive.  Sleep  is  filled  Avith 
dreams;  even  the  dead  haunt  us.  Spirits  are  all  around  as,  and  we 
feel  kinship  with  every  thiug  that  is  drawn  into  touch  with  us  ;  souls 
speak  to  us  out  of  every  thing.  This  may  be  coarse  mythology,  but 
man  sees  more  than  his  eye  does.  There  is  mind  behind  the  eye  ; 
the  delicate  tibers  swoon  when  black  night  puts  its  leaden  touch  on 
them.  The  mind  can  not  be  killed  off;  nothing  save  vice  and  death 
can  deaden  it.  Still  thei'e  is  something  more  tenacious  even  than 
mind.  The  dead  may  be  gone  and  things  may  molder,  but  recol- 
lection and  memory  are  preservatives,  respect  and  fear  last,  even  if 
life  does  not.  Herbert  Spencer  and  Lijipert  speak  of  the  awe  man 
has  for  the  departed,  of  the  apprehension  and  the  love  or  hate  to  chiefs 
who  are  dead,  and  how  this  state  of  mind  is  the  germ  for  the  worsliip- 
ful  man.  Fire,  the  flame  from  the  matrix,  the  bolt  from  the  cloudy 
sky,  how  did  they  come?  asks  the  child-man,  if  not  from  God?  The 
logic  of  man  is  always  sound.  We  can  not  give  any  precise  account 
of  what  we  see.  A  residual  quantity  will  always  embarrass  us. 
Every  trifle  is  endowed  with  a  defiant  mystery,  and  timid  fellows  will 
fall  upon  their  knees,  being  always  on  the  threshold  of  the  inscrutable. 
The  river  tiiat  flows  forever,  the  winds  that  jostle  each  other  over- 
head, the  mountains  iioary  and  high  and  solid,  the  forests  thick  and 
gloomy,  in  whose  deep  shade  the  serpents  coil  and  lie  in  wait,  and  the 
lion  with  stealthy  tread  falls  upon  a  victim  to  crush  out  its  life, 
or  slinks  to  the  edge  of  the  thick  shrubbery — is  he  companion  or  foe; 
the  broad  sky  and  the  myriad-eyed  night  ;  the  golden  or  the  firy  Sun 
and  the  silvery  light  througli  the  winter's  gray-haze;  and  the  day  and 
the  next  day  and  ceaseless  time;  and  this  child  coraiug  into  life  ;  and 
the  man  moving  in  it  and  that  one  passing  away;  the  ocean  and  the 
large  seas  and  the  murmuring  waves  and  the  tossing  storm,  and  in- 
finite expanse  beyond  the  rocks  that  jut  out  with  Avhite  foam  above 
the  crags  up  to  the  far  distant  sky — what  is  all  this?  The  an- 
cient man  had  thousand  Sinais,  thundering,  whispering,  revealing 
God. 

I  wish  we  Jews  would  give  a  hearty  welcome  to  the  new  science 
of  comparative  religions.  We  can  afford  to  do  it,  our  faith  does  not 
contravene  it,  not  even  a  single  datum  of  it;  -we  must  indorse  it,  for 
it  is  a  tradition  with  us  that  we  feel  GOD  every-where,  in  the  garden 
of  Eden,  before  the  tent  of  the  Arab,  on  the  mountain  of  Moriah,  in 


JUDAISM    AND    THE   SCIEXCE   OF    COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.  67 

the  burning  bush  of  the  desert,  in  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation, 
on  bleak  Sinai,  in  luxuriant  Kenaan,  to  the  king,  to  Isaiah  at  home, 
to  Ezekiel  in  exile.  If  Judaism  contradicts  that  which  the  psychol- 
ogy of  the  world  does  not  warrant,  nay  repudiates,  then  Judaism  per- 
forms only  a  duty.  Religion  must  not  only  be  logical,  but  also  psy- 
chological. There  is  only  one  way  to  tell  what  is  a  true  and  what  is 
a  false  religion,  how  far  do  a  man's  thoughts  or  a  man's  feelings  or 
fehese  both  relate  to  his  organic  make-up.  The  national  and  the  social 
conditions  feed  and  shape  the  national  mood.  The  religious  polity  is 
built  by  the  facts  of  national  history. 

Mythologies  are  embodied  fancies,  but  they  are  also  embodied 
morals  according  as  the  national  genius  is  strong  or  weak.  Some  say 
Judaism  has  no  mythology,  but  we  know  better;  for  Judaism  is  a  re- 
ligion of  disciplined  instincts.  Some  say  that  Moses  has  dealt  a  death 
blow  to  art  among  the  Jewish  people ;  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto 
thyself  any  graven  image,"  but  we  understand  Moses  better.  Tiie 
spirit  of  Art  demands  a  large  latitude.  This  latitude  can  be  and  often 
is  contracted  by  the  arrogance  of  a  fashion,  but  then  the  instinct  for 
the  beautiful  suffers. 

I  love  ray  distant  friend  though  I  never  have  seen  him.  I  have 
nothing  but  what  my  imagination  elaborates  as  to  his  person  and  appear- 
ance, but  this  fits  every  need ;  he  is  with  me  when  I  laugh  and  he  sits 
at  my  side  when  I  am  sad,  and  he  is  a  true  companion.  In  tranquil 
hours  my  fancy  draws  curves  in  the  air  and  they  conform  according 
to  the  throbbing  of  my  pulse  into  a  similitude  of  him,  all  my  own  ; 
but  show  me  his  photograph  and  the  fancy  is  gone  and  felicity  with 
it.  His  face  is  never  more  the  same,  live  and  companionable.  I  see 
the  immobile  features  fixed,  not  living.  Art  is  like  a  spring,  vou  can 
not  stop  it  from  flowing,  not  even  the  finest  of  marble  is  art,  and  even 
the  blackest  of  ebony  may  be  shaped  exquisiteh'.  Beauty  must  be 
living,  the  sense  of  the  inexpressible  is  opulent.  That  which  you 
see  you  will  own,  which  you  see  now,  which  perhaps  you  will  never 
again  see  so,  how  rich  it  is.  The  thought  we  have  of  God  by  nature 
is  more  poetic  than  the  one  which  has  been  cultivated  in  us.  Some 
day  the  prose  of  the  church  will  be  translated  back  into  the  poetry 
of  Religion. 

All  religion  is  socialized  wisdom.  This  the  science  of  religion 
proves.  I  do  not  know  whether  even  the  combined  contributions  of 
Max  Mueller,  Tylor,  Spencer,  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  Happel,  Lip- 
pert,  Steinthal,  Bastian,  and  the  rest  have  yet  shown  this  fact.  Some 
day  the  science  of  religion  will  go  farther  than  simply  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  origin  of  religion.     The  history  of  religious  will  have  a 


68  THEOLOGY. 

broader  compass.  There  obtains  an  intimacy  between  religion  and 
politics.  Catholicism  has  perverted  this  notion,  and  Protestantism, 
aware  of  the  difficnlty,  has  taken  up  the  delicate  relationship  as  a 
fisherman  takes  up  a  lobster,  fearing  the  lacerating  fangs.  Bnt  the 
dispute  between  Church  and  State  is  not  after  the  features  which  they 
share  in  common,  but  as  to  those  in  which  they  seem  to  be  irreconcila- 
ble. I  do  not  wish  to  ap]M"oach  an  unpleasant  theme.  I  would 
rather  suggest  that  which  goes  beyond  issues.  A  religion  prevails,^ 
has  followers,  makes  converts,  establishes  a  government,  and  exerts 
an  influence  only  and  so  far  as  it  is  a  social  factor,  and  to  the  degree 
in  which  it  serves  to  sustain  the  community.  This  gives  it  its 
economic,  its  political  character,  and  gives  it  legitimacy. 

The  question  has  been  often  asked,  do  the  Jews  constitute  a  nation  ? 
The  question  implies  vagueness  as  to  what  is  meant  by  nation,  and  it 
shows  also  a  lamentable  want  of  information  as  to  what  Judaism  is;  in 
fact,  an  intelligent  judgment  of  what  religion  is,  is  required  if  we 
should  dispose  of  tlie  question  properly. 

That  which  establishes  and  maintains  a  community  partakes  of  the 
religious.  In  this  experimental  country  of  ours  we  often  attem))t  to 
meet  exigencies  by  statutory  enactments ;  legislation,  however,  never 
goes  to  the  radical  facts  of  social  affairs.  Habits  can  not  be  dislodged 
by  the  police ;  no  sort  of  formalism  can  touch  temperament;  there 
must  be  a  conimon  terra  either  in  the  interests  of  occupation  and  em- 
ployment or  in  experience  and  history.  The  ciuirches  aggregate  not 
through  any  radical  congeniality  of  the  votaries,  but  because  there  is  a 
metaphysical  parallelism  of  the  believers,  and  for  this  reason  the  mod- 
ern sects  have  failed  to  contribute  much  to  the  real  good,  surely  little 
to  the  discipline  of  the  world.  Tliere  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  formal 
faitli  or  catechisraal  confession,  if  it  shall  be  a  force  in  the  world  unless 
it  be  allied  with  the,  household  of  the  people.  The  Jew  has  never 
tolerated  a  divorce  of  belief  from  character.  Christianity  has  fostered 
this  precarious  duplicity.  To  the  Jew  the  divine  in  man  is  at  once 
absolute  and  creative. 

It  h  true,  every  religion  has  its  own  way  to  express  itself,  it  has 
its  peculiar  terminology,  it  has  its  own  ritual,  which  is  a  mode  of  ex- 
pressing its  profound  conceptions,  it  has  its  sectarian  physiognomy; 
but  the  language  of  a  religion,  this  manifold  speech  by  which  it  re- 
veals what  it  is,  is  most  noticeably  conveyed  by  the  degree  of  intensity 
of  its  communal  spirit.  It  is  not  centralized  authority  that  makes  a 
people  solid.  We  have  before  spoken  of  the  interesting  fact  that  there 
is  lacking  in  Judaism  a  supreme  government.  But  the  Jewish  people 
have   an    identity  of  interests   as    they  have   an    identity  of    mind. 


JUDAISM    AND    THE   SCIENCE   OF    COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.         69 

The  fuuctions  of  reliaion  have  orG;anizefl  themselves  into  the  Jewish 
family,  into  the  Jewish  coiumuuity.  The  religion  has  become  social- 
ized. There  is  no  point  at  which  tlie  Jewish  spirit  ceases  to  constrain 
obligation.  Even  the  ancient  Hebrew  language,  aside  of  the  interest 
which  it  has  from  the  standpoint  of  philology,  is  most  engaging  to  the 
student  of  psychology.  The  subtlest  facts  of  the  national  soul  reap- 
pear in  language.  The  idiom  of  a  nation  is  its  mirror.  We  respect 
the  ancient  Bibles  because  they  report  soul-life,  which  is  neither  ancient 
nor  modern,  but  always  the  same.  AVe  respect  the  ancient  Bible  of 
the  Jews  because  it  reports  not  only  the  status  of  ancient  Jewish  life, 
but  because  it  reveals  the  exceptional  fact  that  at  a  time  least  en- 
couraging to,  and  least  susceptible  to,  a  conception  of  pure  morals, 
the  Jews  transcended  the  legitimate  expectation  with  liigh  credit. 
The  Prophets  are  famous  for  their  genius,  but  so  ought  also  indeed 
have  beccmie  the  Jewish  people  for  its  genius  in  morals. 

Perhaps  orthodoxy  and  reform  might  have  to  fight  their  battles 
upon  quite  another  ground  if  their  acrimony  would  leave  them  enough 
of  consideration  so  that  they  would  ascertain  what  after  all  the  real 
issues  between  them  are.  There  might  be  a  new  apology  for  customs 
and  rites,  perhaps  even  for  traditional  customs,  perhaps  also  for  the 
kind  of  religious  worship,  both  domestic  as  well  as  congregational,  by 
which  Judaism  has  up  till  recent  times  been  so  plainly  marked.  The 
laical  practices,  whether  private  or  public,  have  served  to  discipline 
constitutionally  and  morally.  The  practices  were  minute  and  refined, 
and  tinged  the  life  and  conduct  of  each  member  of  the  community. 
A  man's  life  had  become  as  it  were  politico-i'eligious.  Tlie  life  of  the 
individual  was  turned  into  an  arm  for  the  organization  of  the  social  unit. 
The  legislation  of  Moses  might  be  called  an  embodiment  of  social  philos- 
ophy. It  would  be  impertinent  to  readjust  and  to  reform  unless  we  in 
turn  had  in  mind  as  thoi'oughly  constructed  an  economic  ideal.  So 
long  as  we  can  not  show  that  that  which  we  wish  to  put  in  place 
of  tlie  old  is  relevant  to  a  social  policy,  we  have  no  title  for  our  reform- 
atory attempt.  There  is  an  interdependence  between  abstract  notions, 
such  as  religion  and  faith  have  always  been  understood  to  be,  and  the 
practical  or  economic  facts  of  the  state.  But  the  true  religious  facts  are 
operative  in  the  thousand-fold  phases  and  incidents  of  the  community. 
It  may  be  supposed  that  I  mean  to  say  that  the  religious  thought  of 
a  people,  and  its  political  practice  are  bound  to  one  another  only  in 
the  sense  of  ratio,  that  is  true,  but  I  mean  more.  Secular  and  sec- 
tarian mean  at  bottom  the  same  thing,  only  from  two  different  aspects. 
Where  there  was  despotism  in  government  there  was  also  fatalism  in 
religion,  where  life  was  easily  sustained  there  was  optimism,  where  life 


70  THEOLOGY. 

is  cheap  there  is  no  industry,  where  talents  are  rare  there  is  no  en- 
thusiasm, where  there  is  phlegma  there  is  pessimism,  where  there 
is  artificiality  there  is  transceudeDtalism.  Tlie  origin  of  Christian- 
ity might  be  studied  anew,  the  politics  and  the  social  status  of  that 
epoch  ought  to  be  more  closely  regarded.  Palestine  in  the  first 
century  is  not  like  Europe  in  the  middle  ages,  nor  are  the  ideals  of  the 
first  likely  to  have  been  the  same  as  those  were  of  the  second.  A  period 
of  disruption  can  not  breed  a  state  of  mind  such  as  a  period  of  organiza- 
tion does.  The  ascetic  interpretatiou  of  the  Christiau  faitli  is  a  dis- 
tinct phenomenon  ;  so  also  is  the  crude  unformed  state  of  Europe  at 
the  invasion  of  the  Goths.  It  is  sociology  that  tells  the  story  of  the 
origin  of  every  movement,  and  also  of  the  fate  of  each.  Superficial 
observers  call  us  a  people,  a  nation,  a  race;  we,  however,  know  that 
ours  is  an  exemplary  instance  and  the  only  instance  of  a  religion 
thoroughly  political  and  social. 

If  there  is  one  thing  which  Jewish  teachers,  ever  since  Jehuda 
Halevi,  have  insisted  upon,  it  is  that  Judaism  respects  history;  that 
history  is  religion  in  solution.  This  we  will  persist  to  teach.  Dogmas 
are  losing  their  prestige.  Tlie  nations  have  been  weaned  of  that  sort 
of  violent  discipline.  The  age  of  individualism  has  come.  We  need 
another  method  with  which  to  organize  the  world-life  ;  the  church-prin- 
ciple is  doomed  not  only  because  there  is  a  multiplication  of  sects  and 
a  disintegration  in  each,  but  because  each  of  them  is  in  the  main  a 
school  of  metaphysics,  with  a  bit  of  ritualism  thrown  in,  without  any 
relation  with  the  vital  influence  and  factors  in  national  progress. 
Besides,  the  constituency  is  coerced  by  a  certain  prescriptive  code  in 
belief.  Out  of  tlie  very  seat  of  social  necessity  must  come  its  consti- 
tution. The  law  of  gravitation  holds  throughout  tlie  world.  The 
social  organism  will  bear  its  church.  Nature  brings  forth  with  pain 
out  of  her  great  lap.  The  martyrdom  of  saints,  the  disappointments 
of  the  hopeful,  the  grief  of  dreamers,  the  anguish  of  saints,  broken 
hearts— over  graves  the  spirit  of  life  moves  with  reverent  hut  firm 
step. 

There  is  much  gossip  about  the  identity  of  Judaism  and  Unitari- 
anism.  I  am  sorry  that  there  are  Kabbis  who  are  so  eager  for  a  pre- 
mature universalism  that  tliey  will  hurry  to  engage  in  any  sort  of 
companionsliip.  Not  even  the  last  form  of  tlie  Christian  church  can 
ever  be  any  thing  else  than  Christian,  and  that  wliich  is  a  link  (let  us 
say  the  last  link)  in  the  evolutionary  chain  of  Christian  philosophy,  is 
radically,  I  say  radically  Christian.  The  difference  between  Judaism 
and  every  phase  of  Christian  theology  is  clear  enough.  Judaism  is 
not  a  chapter  in  the  history  of  thought,  not  in    the  history  of  zeal ;   it 


JUDAISM    AND    THE   SCIENCE   OF    COMPARATIVE   RELIGIONS.  71 

is  the  soul  of  the  community  which  breaks  out  into  all  the  moods  and 
movements  of  the  body  politic,  just  as  the  soul  of  a  man  breaks 
through  his  flesh  and  bone.  Judaism  is  not  a  protest  against  any 
school  of  thought.  It  is  as  peaceful  as  light,  as  germinal  as  life,  as 
true  as  God. 


72  THEOLOGY. 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PRAYER  ACCORDING  TO  JEWISH  DOC- 
TRINE. 


By  rabbi  I.  S.  MOSES. 


t 


"To  appreciate  the  poet,  one  must  go  into  the  poet's  land,"  is  a 
German  adage.  To  understand  the  character  of  a  religion,  one  must 
study  its  prayers;  to  know  the  nature  of  a  religious  community,  one 
must  enter  into  the  sacred  precinct  of  (heir  liturgy.  Were  to-day  the 
history  of  Israel  wiped  out  from  the  memory  of  men,  were  even  the 
Bible  to  be  obliterated  from  the  literature  of  the  world,  the  student 
of  the  science  of  comparative  religion  could  reconstruct  from  a  few 
pages  of  the  Jewish  prayer  book  the  lofty  f:iith  of  Israel,  the  grandeur 
of  his  moral  teachings,  and  the  main  points  of  his  historic  career.  What 
kind  of  men  were  they  who  would  pray  every  morning:  "Be  praised, 
O  God,  King  of  the  world,  who  hast  not  made  me  a  slave?"  Tliey 
certainly  had  no  reference  to  the  poor  creature  bought  and  sold  like 
merchandise;  for  neither  in  old  nor  in  later  Israel  was  slavery  so  ex- 
tensive nor  so  abject  as  to  call  forth  such  a  self-complacent  benediction. 
During  the  long  night  of  persecutinn,  the  position  of  the  Jew  was 
such  as  not  to  compare  favorably  with  that  of  a  slave.  The  slave  at 
least  enjoyed  the  protection  of  his  master,  but  the  Jew  during  the 
middle  ages  was  at  the  mercy  of  every  ruffian  who  chose  to  insult  him. 
Yet  would  he  pray  with  grateful  devotion  to  his  Maker  and  rejoice 
that  he  has  not  been  made  a  slave.  Compared  with  his  tormentors, 
he  felt  himself  to  be  the  free  man  spiritually  and  morally,  far  above 
those  who  thrust  him  into  misery.  Indeed,  freedom  is  the  first  note  of 
Jewish  worship;  a  song  of  freedom  was  the  first  prayer  which  liberated 
Israel  attuned  to  his  God.  "They  shall  be  my  servants;"  this  divine 
assurance  included  tlie  behest,  not  to  be  servants  of  men,  not  to  fear 
their  frowns,  not  to  fawn  their  favor,  but  to  obey  the  will  of  Hitn 
alone  who  has  manifested  Himself  in  Israel.  The  divine  will  is  not 
hidden;  the  divine  law  has  been  revealed  and  intrusted  to  the  keep- 
ing of  Israel.  This  consciousness  of  being  the  i)os£essor  of  divine 
tiuth  in  the  form  of  the  Torah,  is  a  source  of  uiisj)cakable  joy  for  the 
soul  of  the  Jew;  from  it  he  drinks  ever  new  inspiration  and  new 
strength.      Tmlli,  therefore,  or  the  Torah,  is  the  second  great  element 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PRAYER  ACCORDING  TO  JEWISH  DOCTRINE.   73 

in  Jewish  worship.  Amidst  all  cliaiiges  of  fortune,  in  the  face  of 
direst  distress,  even  in  the  agony  of  death,  the  Jew  would  look  upon 
his  lot  as  specially  favured  by  God  ;  thanking  Him  for  the  great  boon 
of  havins:  received  the  burden  of  the  Law.  In  this  law  and  in  his 
obedience  to  it,  he  beholds  his  chief  distinction,  or  election,  before  all 
other  nations.  Again  and  again  tlie  gladsome  tone  is  struck  that  God 
has  given  the  law  to  Israel.  A  few  sentences  from  the  evening  service 
will  be  sufficient  to  illustrate  this  deep,  intense  love  (jf  the  Jewish 
people  for  their  sacred  heritage.  "  With  eternal  love  Thou  hast  guided 
the  house  of  Israel ;  law  and  commandment,  statutes  and  judgments, 
Thou  hast  taught  us.  Therefore  will  we  constantly  think  of  Thy  law 
and  rejoice  in  Thy  teachings  ;  for  they  are  our  life  and  the  lengthening 
of  our  days,  and  in  them  we  will  meditate  day  and  night ;  so  may  Thy 
love  never  depart  from  us." 

iVnd  even  so  in  the  morning  service  the  chief  petition  is  for  il- 
lumination in  the  law.  "  Our  Father,  our  King,  as  Thou  hast  taught 
our  fathers  the  statutes  of  life,  so  graciously  teach  us.  Enlighten  our 
minds  in  Thy  law,  and  unite  our  hearts  to  love  Thy  name.  Enable 
us  to  understand,  to  appreciate,  to  listen,  to  learn,  to  teach,  and  to 
practice  the  words  of  Thy  law  in  love." 

This,  then,  is  the  great  longing  of  his  soul,  this  the  substance  of 
his  prayer,  this  the  hidden  fountain  of  his  joyousness  :  to  be  able  to 
understand  and  to  carry  out  tlie  law  of  his  God  !  If  we  did  not  know 
from  history  what  tlie  Jew  has  done  and  endured  in  his  steadfastness 
and  fidelity  to  the  law,  such  prayers  would  reveal  the  fact.  But  the 
law  is  only  the  outward  expression  and  examplification  of  a  deeper 
truth,  which  is  the  center  and  soul  of  Jewish  thought  and  life.  That 
truth  has  been  formulated  at  the  very  incipiency  of  tlie  i)eople,  and 
has  become  the  watchword  and  battle-cry,  the  sign  of  recognition  and 
the  sound  of  confession,  for  all  the  members  of  the  Jewish  faith;  it 
forms  the  central  part  of  every  divine  service,  private  or  public,  and 
Avill  cease  to  be  uttered  only  with  the  last  breath  of  the  last  Israelite 
on  earth.  The  Sii'ma  or  the  profession  of  the  One  God,  is  the  formula 
of  that  truth  which  Israel  first  announced  to  the  world  ;  the  truth 
which  inspired  the  souls  of  the  Prophets,  winged  the  imagination  of 
the  Psalmists,  set  aglow  the  hearts  of  the  sages  in  their  longing  for  a 
righteous  life,  wliich  gave  birth  to  two  grand  systems  of  religion  professed 
to-day  by  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth.  This  truth  is  no  mere 
theological  postulate  ;  it  is  an  ethical  movement;  for  the  declaration  of 
the  Oneness  of  God  necessarily  produces  tiie  idea  of  the  oneness  of 
humanit}',  or  the  brotherhood  of  man.  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord, 
thy  God,"  and  "  thou  shalt   love  thy  fellow-man  as  thyself,"  are  only 


74  THEOLOGY. 

two  different  forms  of  expressing  the  same  thought.  In  this  thought, 
then,  lies  the  mission  of  Israel,  this  is  the  reason  of  his  great  joy- 
when  thinking  that  he  has  been  deemed  worthy  to  be  the  bearer  of 
that  mission.  Therefore  he  exclaims:  "Happy  are  we,  how  goodly 
is  our  portion,  how  pleasant  our  lot,  how  beautiful  our  heritage; 
happy  are  we  who  proclaim  :  Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  is  our  God, 
the  Lord  is  One." 

To  freedom,  law  and  truth  is  thus  added  a  fourth  element  of  wor- 
ship— Love  !     Love  to  God  and  love  to  man. 

Among  no  other  class  of  people  has  the  sentiment  of  love  found 
such  a  rich  expression  as  among  the  Jews  ;  au  expression  not  in  words 
but  in  deeds.     Filial  love  and  reverence,  honor  and  obedience,  conju- 
gal love  and  fidelity,  brotherly  love  and  charity,  are  virtues  to  which 
the  Jew  has  furnished  the  noblest  illustration.     From   the  depth   of 
such  a  sentiment  rose  that  portion  of  the  Service  which,  because  of  its 
importance,  is  called  ''the  Prayer."     It  is  unique  in  form  and  sublime 
in  its  suggestiveness :   "Praised  be  thou,  our  God,  and  God  of  our 
fathers,"  our  fathers'  God — this  expression  is  the  noblest  testimony  to 
the  tender  and  grateful  heart  of  the  Jew— "Thou  art  great,  mighty 
and  awe-inspiring,  O  God,  Most  High."     To  the  Jewish  mind  God  is 
not  a  mere  sentiment,  but  an  overpowering  reality,  in  whose  presence 
the  soul  is  awed  to  adoration,  and  can  find  but  superlatives  to  clothe 
into  words  what  stirs  within  :  "Thou  rewardest  the  good,  rememberest 
the  love  of  the  fathers  and  bringest  redemption  to  the  children's  chil- 
dren out  of  love.    Thou  alone  art  mighty  and  in  Thy  mercy  givest  life 
unto  all ;  Thou  sustainest  the  living  iu  Thy  grace,  supportest  the  fall- 
iug,  healest  the  sick,  loosest  the  bonds  of  captives,  and  keepest  Tiiy 
faithfulness  to  those  who  sleep  iu  the  dust."    What  a  tender  and  touch- 
ing expression — "  they  who  sleep ;"  not  departed,  not  dead,  only  sleep- 
ing in  the  watchful  care  of  God  ! 

And  now,  rising  to  the  highest  conception  which  the  finite  creat- 
ure can  form  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  ttie  worshiping  soul  can  but 
repeat  the  solemn  words  which  the  prophet  Isaiah  reports  to  have 
heard  in  his  first  vision;  the  "Threefold-Holy  of  the  angels  worship- 
ing the  divine  presence:  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of  Hosts;  the 
whole  world  is  full  of  His  glory  !" 

What  God  is  to  the  myriads  of  worlds  encircling  His  throue,  we 
know  not ;  but  iu  the  heart  of  man  longing  for  virtue,  and  to  the  mind 
searching  for  the  light  of  truth,  He  is  revealed  as  the  Holy  One,  who 
loveth  riirhteousness  and  leadeth  miiii  to  holiness.  Or,  in  the  words 
of  the  Law  :  "  Ye  shall  be  holy,  for  I,  the  Lord  your  God,  am  holy;" 
a  strain  modulated  l)v  a  later  Teacher— wliom  to-day,  iu  this  Parliament 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PRAYER  ACCORDING  TO  JEWISH  DOCTRINE.        75 

of  Religions,  we  are  proud  to  call  one  of  Israel's  noblest  sons — in  the 
words,  "Be  ye  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  is 
perfect." 

This  is  the  purpose  of  all  religion — this  especially  the  object  of 
Jewish  worship — to  lead  man  to  holiness,  to  perfection.  The  function 
of  prayer,  therefore,  is  not  to  persuade  God  to  granting  us  favors,  or 
by  our  hymns  and  praises  influence  His  will,  but  an  opportunity  for 
man  to  learn  to  subject  his  will  to  the  will  of  God  ;  to  strive  after  truth  ; 
to  enrich  his  heart  with  love  for  humanity  ;  to  ennoble  the  soul  with  the 
longing  after  righteousness.  To  the  Jew  the  house  of  prayer  is  not  a 
gate  to  heaven,  not  an  instrument  for  gaining  celestial  rewards,  but 
simply  a  gate  to  righteousness  (Shaare  Zedek)  througJi  wliich  he  enters 
into  the  communion  with  the  larger  life  of  God.  Holiness,  or  the 
obligation  of  virtue,  the  sacredness  of  duty,  is  the  lifth  element  of  Jew- 
ish worship,  the  indestructible  foundation  of  Jewish  morality. 

To  some  it  may  seem  strange  to  find  so  little  of  the  personal, 
or  individual  element  in  the  Jewish  service.  Even  in  that  prayer 
which  by  long  usage  has  become  associated  with  the  idea  of  immortal- 
ity, in  the  Kaddish  prayer,  no  reference  to  personal  grief  or  personal 
reward  is  found.  It  contains  nothing  but  the  praise  of  God,  the  sanc- 
tification  of  His  great  name.  But  this  fact  again  reveals  only  the  lofty 
idealism  of  the  Jewish  mind.  The  consciousness  that  above  all  fleet- 
ing things  God  is ;  that  He  is  the  only  reality  ;  that  His  life  is  the  life 
of  all.  This  thought  has  sufficient  cogency  to  uplift  and  console  the 
heart  of  those  sorrowing  over  the  loss  of  their  loved  ones. 

This  thought  of  God  is  also  parent  of  another  sentiment,  the  sen- 
timent of  gratitude,  forming  an  essential  element  of  Jewish  worship. 
I  know  of  no  more  spiritual,  noble  and  dignified  thanks-oifering  than 
the  one  of  the  old  Jewish  service,  known  as  the  '■'Modim."  What  is 
the  Jewish  worshiper  most  thankful  for?  For  the  thought  of  God,  for 
the  knowledge  of  His  works !  It  may  not  be  amiss  even  for  Jewish 
ears  to  listen  to  this  prayer  once  more.  "  We  gratefully  acknowledge, 
O  Lord,  our  God,  that  Thou  art  our  Creator  and  Preserver,  the  Ruck 
of  our  life,  and  the  Shield  of  our  help.  From  age  to  age  we  render 
thanks  unto  Thee  for  our  lives,  which  are  in  Thy  hands,  for  our  souls 
intrusted  to  Thy  care,  for  Thy  marvelous  works  by  which  we  are  sur- 
rounded, and  for  Thy  boundless  goodness,  which  is  revealed  unto  us  at 
all  times,  morning,  noon,  and  night.  We  bless  Thee,  All-Good,  whose 
mercies  never  fail,  whose  loviug-kindness  is  without  end.  In  Thee  do 
we  put  our  trust  forever." 

To  unite  all  men  unto  a  band  of  brotherhood,  and  thus  establish 
peace  on  earth,  is  the  aim   of  all  religion.     Peace,  therefore,  is  the 


76  THEOLOGY. 

chief  blessing  for  wliicli  the  Jew  prays  to  his  God.  In  no  liturgy  does 
the  word  peace  occur  so  often  as  in  the  Jewish,  or  those  patterned  after 
it.  He,  the  hero  of  a  thousand  battles,  the  warrior  in  the  service  of 
God,  the  martyr  in  the  service  of  truth,  the  undaunted,  uncompro- 
mising defender  of  liberty  of  conscience,  has  no  sweeter  melody,  no 
more  soul-stirring  song,  than  when  he  prays  to  God  for  the  blessing  of 
peace.  This  prayer  has  found  a  place  in  the  liturgies  of  church  and 
mosque.  The  threefold  benediction  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  priest  fore- 
shadowed humanity's  prayer  for  universal  peace. 

We  need  no  statistics  to  prove  that  the  Jew  is  a  loyal,  law-abiding 
citizen  of  the  nation  whose  social  and  political  life  he  shares.  He  who 
breathes  such  a  prayer  for  peace  is  certainly  a  lover  of  peace. 

They  who  were  Avont  to  decry  the  Jews  as  selfish,  narrow,  ex- 
clusive, should  take  the  trouble  of  examining  the  Jewish  prayer-book 
as  to  the  sentiment  of  universality,  of  human  brotherhood.  In  the 
prayers  for  New  Year  and  Day  of  Atonement,  the  days  when  his  soul 
is  most  attuned  to  vibrate  in  response  to  noble  sentiments,  the  Jew 
prays:  "  O  God,  let  the  fear  of  Thee  extend  over  all  Thy  works,  and 
reverence  for  Thee  fill  all  creatures,  that  they  may  all  form  one  baud 
and  do  Thy  will  with  an  upright  heart,  so  that  all  manner  of  wicked- 
ness shall  cease,  and  all  the  dominion  of  the  presumptuous  shall  be 
removed  from  the  earth." 

Still  more  clearly  is  this  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  all  men  ex- 
pressed in  the  grand  concluding  prayer  of  every  service,  the  prayer 
known  as  "  Alenu  "  or  "Adoration."  "It  behooves  us  to  render  j)raise 
and  thanksgiving  unto  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  who  has  de- 
livered us  from  the  darkness  of  error  and  sent  to  us  the  light  of  His 
truth.  Therefore  we  hope  that  all  superstition  will  sjieedily  pass  away, 
all  wickedness  cease,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  be  established  on  earth  ; 
then  will  the  Lord  be  King  over  all  the  earth,  on  that  day  shall  God 
be  acknowledged  One  and  His  name  be  One."  Again  let  me  em- 
phasize that  these  prayers  and  hopes  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  rehearse  in  theological  terms  the  grand  and  ever-recurring 
theme  of  the  one  humanity  built  upon  the  rock  of  righteousness  and 
ruled  by  truth  and  love. 

One  more  element  of  worship  must  be  mentioned,  as  without  it 
the  circle  of  Jewish  ideas  would  be  incomplete,  viz.:  The  idea  of 
sin.  To  the  Jew  the  thought  of  sin  is  no  inetaphysical  conception, 
but  a  personal  experience;  the  consciousness  of  his  own  shortcomings 
burdens  his  soul,  not  the  concern  for  the  evil  doings  of  some  remote 
ancestor.  The  ortlmdox  Jew  feels  his  responsibility  for  the  sins  of  his 
people,  in  the  past  as  well  as  in  the  present  ;   to  them  he  attributes  his 


THE  FUNCTION  OF  PRAYER  ACCORDING  TO  JEWISH  DOCTRINE.        77 

national  misfortunes.  But  these  sins  are  not  inherent  in  his  nature; 
they  are  remediable.  The  time  is  aear,  he  hopes,  when  the  measure 
of  his  suffering  shall  be  full,  and  when  God  will  lead  him  back  in 
glory  to  his  own  land.  Tlie  modern,  liberal  Jew,  who  has  discarded 
from  his  heart  as  well  as  his  liturgy  all  longing  for  a  national  restora- 
tion, l)ut  considers  his  native  or  adopted  land  his  Palestine,  still  feels 
the  moral  responsibility  for  the  sins  of  all  his  brethren  in  faith,  but 
this  feeling  does  not  carry  witii  it  the  thought  of  divine  punish- 
ment. According  to  Jewish  conce})ti()n  man  is  responsible  only  for 
his  own  sins  ;  forgiveness  of  sin  can  be  obtained  only  by  thorough  re- 
pentance. The  Jewish  worshiper  feels  "  there  is  no  wall  of  separation 
between  God  and  man."  In  hira  lives  the  consciousness  of  being  a 
child  of  God.  The  Father  will  not  reject  the  prayer  of  His  children. 
This  assurance  of  divine  forgiveness  explains  the  spirit  of  joyousness 
and  cheerful  trust  that  prevails  throughout  the  Jewish  service.  For 
this  reason,  too,  the  Jew  reserves  confession  of  sins  and  prayers  for 
forgiveness  for  the  great  Day  of  Atonement.  On  that  day  he  is 
bidden  to  examine  his  conduct,  to  make  amends  for  his  wrongdoing, 
to  seek  forgiveness  of  his  offended  brother,  and  thus  be  reconciled 
to  himself  and  his  God. 

The  *words  of  the  concluding  prayer  of  the  Day  of  Atonement 
will  express  more  clearly  this  sense  of  intimacy  with  God,  which  ani- 
mates the  Jewish  worshiper,  than  any  lengthy  exposition  could  do: 
"  Thou  readiest  Thy  hand  unto  him  who  is  astray,  and  Thy  right 
hand  is  outstretched  to  take  up  in  love  those  who  turu  again  unto 
Thee.  Thou  hast  taught  us,  O  Lord,  to  acknowledge  all  our  sins  be- 
fore Thee,  to  the  end  that  we  may  withhold  our  hands  from  unright- 
eousness. For  Thou  knowest,  Loid,  that  we  are  but  dust  and  ashes; 
therefore  dost  Thou  forgive  us  much  and  often.  But  Thou  hast  chosen 
weak,  fragile  man  from  the  beginning,  and  hast  exalted  him  to  know 
and  reverence  Thee.  For  who  should  dare  say  what  Thou  shalt  do? 
And  were  man  yet  righteous,  what  avails  it  to  Thee  ?  In  Thy  love 
also  hast  Thou  given  us  this  Day  of  Atonement,  as  a  day  of  f  )rgive- 
uess  and  pardon  for  all  our  sins,  that  we  cease  from  all  unrighteous- 
ness, turn  again  to  Thee,  and  do  Thy  will  with  the  whole  heart.  Have 
pity  upon  us,  therefore,  in  Thine  infinite  mercy,  f  )r  Thou  desirest  not 
the  destruction  of  the  world,  as  it  is  written  :  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while 
He  may  be  found,  call  ye  upon  Him  while  He  is  near;  let  the  wicked 
forsake  his  ways,  and  the  unrighteous  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  re- 
turn unto  the  Lord  who  will  have  mercy  upon  hira,  and  unto  our  God, 
for  He  will  abundantly  pardon." 

Yet  in  all  these  prayers  and  supplications  no  reference  is  found  to 


78  THEOLOGY. 

future  punishment  or  reward;  no  dread  of  everlasting  torment  over- 
shadows the  Jewish  mind ;  no  selfish  longing  for  eternal  pleasures  is 
an  incentive  to  his  repentance. 

These  are,  in  brief,  the  elements  of  Jewish  worship  ;  they  give 
sufficient  answer  to  the  question  :  What  is  the  purpose  of  prayer  ac- 
cording to  Jewish  doctrines?  It  is  to  imbue  the  worshiper  with 
the  spirit  of  freedom  and  truth,  with  the  love  of  God  and  of  man  ; 
with  reverence  for  the  past  and  trust  for  the  future ;  with  the 
feeling  of  the  sanctity  of  life  and  sacreduess  of  duty;  of  gi'atitude 
and  peace ;  it  is  to  inspire  him  with  the  larger  thought  than  his  own 
individuality,  with  the  thought  of  the  universal  brotherhood  of  man 
and  the  all-embracing,  all-pardoning  love  of  God.  These  ideas  of  the 
Jewish  liturgy  are  at  the  same  time  a  truthful  testimony  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  Jewish  people. 


MESSIANIC   IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST   TIMES,    ETC.  79 


A  REVIEW  OF  THE  MESSIANIC  IDEA  FROM  THE  EARLIEST 
TIMES  TO  THE  RISE  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


BY  DR.  I.  SCHWAB. 


The  hope  of  the  Messiah,  that  is,  the  hope  of  a  restoration  of 
dispersed  Israel  to  a  prosperous  and  glorious  national  independ- 
ence under  their  own  king,  is  ancient.  How  far  back  in  liistory  it 
dates  can,  however,  not  be  decided  with  certainty.  Professor  Fiirst, 
the  erudite  author  of  the  "  History  of  the  Biblical  Literature,"  traces 
it  back  to  the  early  period  of  the  division  of  the  Israelitish  empire, 
after  the  death  of  King  Solomon.  This  event,  he  maintains,  had  so 
seriously  weakened  the  Hebrew  government  and  country,  and  oc- 
casioned so  many  hostile  onsets  by  neighboring  nations,  that  the  better 
part  of  the  Israelites  began  already  then  to  long  for  a  restitution  of  the 
Davidic  dynasty,  which  they  expected  to  be  after  the  pattern  of  the 
first.  The  ideal  God-favored  "  branch  "  of  the  house  of  the  beloved 
and  renowned  King  David  would,  so  the  vision  was,  fill  the  present 
gap,  and  establish  again  a  mighty,  large,  and  unified  empire.  As 
eloquent  exponents  of  that  fervid  longing  for  a  reinstatement  of  the 
Davidic  empire,  Fiirst  suggests,  the  Hebrew  prophets,  alike  of  the 
northern  and  southern  kingdoms,  came  forward  in  their  respective 
times.  And  that  learned  writer  adds,  that  those  very  prophets  raised 
the  Messianic  hope  at  the  same  time  from  its  narrow  scope  to  the 
expectation  of  the  universal  dominion  both  of  Israel  over  other  na- 
tions and  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah  over  the  false  beliefs  of  the 
Gentiles. 

Fiirst  is  followed,  to  mention  one  more  Jewish  scholar,  by  Weiss, 
in  his  "  History  of  the  Traditions."  He  holds  about  the  same  po- 
sition. We  do  not  here  propose  to  enter  upon  a  discussion  of  its 
merits.  Let  us  state  that  we  strongly  incline  to  a  divergent  opin- 
ion. We  prefer  to  coincide  with  the  Jewish  historian,  Herzfeld,  who 
very  plausibly  proposes  that  the  manifold  older  Messianic  predictions, 
some  of  which  reach  as  far  back  as  the  ninth  century  B.  C,  lay  dor- 
mant in  the  body  of  the  transmitted  Hebrew  literature,  and  were  not 
made  use  of  for  doctrinal  objects  or  for  sentimental  vehicles  of  ex- 
pectation until  the  period  of  the  Babylonian  captivity. 


80  THEOLOGY, 

When  at  the  comrneucenient  of  the  sixth  ceyitury  B.  C.  the  de- 
portations of  captive  Judeans  to  the  lands  of  the  Babylonian  con- 
queror began,  which  ended  with  the  total  destruction  of  the  State  of 
Judah,  comforting  \vords  and  efforts  of  reassurance  were  needed  for 
those  unfortunates.  At  that  epoch  Jeremiah,  the  stanch  and  fore- 
sighted  prophet,  puts  forth  a  course  of  encouraging  and  cheering 
speeches,  opening  out  to  the  exiles  brilliant  perspectives  of  restora- 
tion. In  th^  period  of  the  exile  fall  also  the  comforting  discourses  of 
Ezekiel  and  Isaiah,  the  latter  called  by  the  critics  the  Great  Unknown 
or  Unnamed.  All  of  these  holy  men  aimed  to  arouse  in  the  hearts 
of  their  downcast  and  distracted  countrymen  glowing  expectations  of 
a  felicitous  return  to  their  native  land. 

The  prophets,  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  connected  this  prospective 
restitution  of  the  exiles  with  the  reappearance  of  a  Davidic,  that  is, 
Messianic  reign.  Jeremiah  pointed  out  a  coming  reign  of  a  "branch 
of  David,"  whom  God  will  at  his  appointed  time  cause  to  grow  up 
(xxiii,  5  ;  xxxiii,  15).  He  even  calls  this  future  ruler  of  the  line  of 
David  by  the  specific  name  of  David  (xxx,  9).  Likewise  does  Ezekiel 
designate  in  his  predictions  the  future  "  king  and  shepherd  of  Israel" 
as  Jehovah's  "servant,  David"  (xxxiv,  24;  xxxvii,  24).  This  deno- 
tation of  David  proper  for  the  promised  king  of  Israel,  was  most 
probably  not  intended  to  be  construed  literally.  At  any  rate  it  was 
commonly  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  as  well  as  among  the  later  rabbi.'s 
of  the  Talmud,  conceived  to  refer  to  none  other  than  a  descendant  of 
David. 

The  ^Messiah  to  come  was  in  popular  parlance  styled  the  "  son 
of  David."  This  title  was  already  well  and  firmly  established  in  the 
New  Testament  times,  as  appears  unquestionably  from  the  Gospels. 

If  we  inquire,  further,  how  have  Jeremiaii  and  Ezekiel  as  well  as 
some  older  prophets  pictured  in  their  own  minds  the  nature  and  form 
of  the  government  of  the  ideal  Davidic  king — Christ — the  answer  will 
be,  that  they  conceived  it  to  be  theocratic,  after  the  pattern  of  the 
reign  of  King  David  of  old.  The  Messiah  was  to  be,  like  David, 
God's  viceregent  or  viceroy,  carrying  forward,  on  behalf  of  the  Al- 
mighty Sovereign,  an  administration  of  "judgment  and  justice." 

There  are  many  evidences  from  Scripture  corroborating  our  as- 
sumjjtion  that  the  ideal  Messianic  king  was  held  eminently  vicarious 
of  Jehovah.  It  may  be  reluctant  to  our  advanced  sentiment  to  admit 
that  the  Davidic  kingship,  alike  past  and  to  come,  should  have  been 
extolled  so  egregiously.  But  tlie  fact  nevertheless  remains  that  the 
Hebrews  of  the  pre-exilian  and  exilian  times  were  as  susceptible  of 
exalting  kings  as  were  other  nationalities.     One  need  only  compare 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES,    ETC.  81 

Pss.  ii,  and  ex,  1,  to  be  convinced  of  the  accuracy  of  our  assertion. 
As  to  tlie  ideal  Messianic  king  it  is  no  less  true  that  his  government 
was  prophetically  conceived  to  merge  into  tiiat  of  Jehovah  and  become 
in  every  sense  and  bearing,  except  that  of  religious  worship,  identical 
witli  it.  It  is  this  consideration  that  accounts  for  theeasv  interchau<ro, 
in  many  Jewish  writings  of  old,  of  tlie  2)hrase  "Kingdom  of  God  " 
with  "Kingdom  of  the  House  of  David" — the  latter  in  the  view  of 
Messiahdom.  That  intei'change  made  the  phrase  "  Kingdom  of  God" 
or  "of  Heaven,"  in  its  relation  to  the  Messiah,  very  popular  in  cour.-e 
of  time.  So  fixmiliar  was,  indeed,  in  the  subsequent  era  of  the  Roman 
dominion  in  which  the  hope  of  Messiah  had  to  be  cautiously  veiled, 
the  expression  Kingdom  of  God  to  every  Israelite,  that,  when  John 
the  Baptist  and  Jesus  heralded  its  near  approach,  every  Jewish  hearer 
readily  understood  it  in  the  Messianic  meaning,  which  both  previous 
custom  and  present  political  fear  had  put  and  fixed  upon  it.  All  this 
can  be  explained  to  be  originally  due  to  that  Hebrew  concept  of  an- 
terior times,  a  concept  merging  the  divine  government  and  that  of 
his  temporal  viceregeut  into  one  another. 

After  this  diversion  we  have  to  pass  over  to  the  before-mentioned 
third  prophet  of  the  exile,  Isaiah  II.  A  more  enthusiastic  prophet 
Israel  never  had.  His  zeal  for  the  cause  of  his  captive  brethren  ex- 
ceeded all  measure.  In  the  airy  sweeps  of  his  h^fty  imagination,  lie 
sought  to  set  up  the  waning  confidence  and  flagging  courage  of  his 
brethren  of  the  captivity.  He  became  in  reality  the  prophet  of  con- 
solation proper. 

At  last,  after  about  fifty  years  from  the  destruction  of  the  State 
of  Judah,  the  hour  of  restoration  struck  for  the  wretched  exiles. 
When  Cyrus  approached  Babylon  with  his  gigantic  army  of  sturdy 
Persians,  our  fiery  prophet,  overcharged  as  he  was  with  pious  patriot- 
ism, proclaimed  that  eastern  conqueror  as  Jehovah's  gentle  "shepherd 
and  liberating  Messiah"  (ib.  xliv,  28;  xlv,  11),  who  would  dismiss 
the  exiles  to  their  former  homes  and  rebuild  Jerusalem  (ib.  xiii). 
He  mak^s  no  mention  whatever,  though,  of  a  Hebrew  Davidic  king 
being  in  any  way  instrumental  in  the  act  of  restoration.  Cyrus  was 
to  him  evidently  a  good  enough  organ  of  salvation  for  Israel.  He  was 
in  his  eyes  fully  qualified  to  act  the  part  of  Christ-emancipator. 
What  mattered  it,  in  very  fact,  whom  Jehovah  would  appoint  as 
national  savior  and  redeemer.  All  that  Israel  craved  for  in  the  desert 
of  the  exile  was  reinstatement  into  their  inlieritance.  This  granted 
and  about  to  be  accomplished,  tlie  rest  of  previous  Davidic  predictions 
could  fairly  be  waived  or  at  any  rate  held  in  abeyance  as  to  their  dog- 
6 


82  THEOLOGY. 

matic  force.  Moreover,  our  prophet  was,  to  judge  from  his  various 
compositions,  more  engrossed  by  the  religious  than  the  political  feat- 
ure of  Israel's  restoration.  His  chief  concern  was,  that  it  should  be 
attended  with  the  stamping  out  of  idolatry  from  Israel  and  the 
abolition  of  false  worship  in  general,  as  well  as  the  universal  recogni- 
tion of  the  Unity  of  God.     (See  xlii,  6;  xlv,  6;  Ivi,  3,  6.) 

H  now  we  come  to  consider  whether  the  many  encouraging 
and  uplifting  predictions  of  the  prominent  prophets  of  the  exile  became 
true,  we  will  find  that  they  were  only  partially  realized.  It  can  be 
proven  without  any  difficulty  that  all  of  them  fell  considerably  short 
of  the  wide  range  those  inspired  men  had  given  them.  Were  the 
hopeful  anticipations  uttered  in,  and  aroused  by,  their  writings  for  this 
reason  vain  and  futile?  Not  at  all.  They  served  their  purpose  at 
the  time.  They  rekindled  the  dispirited  hearts  of  the  people  of  the 
captivity,  lield  them  together  in  a  bond  of  union,  and  guai'ded  them 
from  losing  their  identity  in  their  scattered  condition  among  the 
heathens.  Were  these  not  objects  well  worthy  of  the  highest  efforts 
of  spirited  eloquence?  Will  we  find  fault  with  them  for  depicting  the 
future  in  too  bright,  even  dazzling,  hues,  and  thus  awakening  too  high- 
flown  expectations  in  the  minds  of  the  exiled  brethren  ?  No,  our  his- 
torically sympathetic  hearts  are  too  indulgent  for  that.  Moreover,  it 
has  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  those  prophets  were  inspired  idealists. 
Tliey  would  figure  less  on  the  natural  evolution  from  the  con)plexities 
■of  the  stern  and  sad  present  than  on  a  supernatural  flashing  out  of 
divine  helj)  for  their  peojile.  In  their  idealism  they  would  leave  out 
t)f  the  account  the  practical  consideration — to  use  a  phrase  of  a  mod- 
ern wi-iter — that  "  liberty  is  a  matter  for  the  statesman  to  define  rather 
than  the  poet  to  invoke."  Persian  statesmanship  was,  as  events 
proved,  not  willing,  desj)ite  scores  of  Hebrew  oracles  to  the  contrary, 
to  surrender  the  dominion  over  its  Jewish  subjects  into  their  own 
hands.  Was  it  not  favor  enough  that  Cyrus  gave  the  exiles  permis- 
sion to  return?  This  message  of  emancipation  was,  indeed,  received 
by  them  with  jubilant  applause.  Their  sore-tried  hearts  broke  forth 
in  high  strains  of  rejoicing.  Yet,  alas  !  the  sudden  exultation  was 
soon  toned  down  again  by  many  adverse  events.  All  their  high  iiopes 
of  national  bliss  were  blighted  by  stubborn  untoward  reality. 

We  can  not  here  venture  to  describe  even  briefly  the  condition  of 
the  returned  colony  in  the  Jewish  land  in  the  two  centuries  of  the 
Persian  period.  On  the  whole,  it  has  to  be  said  that  it  was  almost  in- 
variably precarious,  depressed,  and  dismal.  Their  hoped-for  greatness 
proved  an  al)ortive  dream;  their  fancied  glory  a  delusive  mirage. 
Their  material   lot   became   hard   in    many  ways  while  under  Persia. 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE   EARLIEST    TIMES,    ETC.  83 

But,  what  grieved  and  vexed  them  most  was  the  very  condition  of  for- 
eign servitude  itself.  The  hearts  of  the  Jews  in  the  new  settlement 
were  never  at  ease  in  view  of  their  tributary  dependence  on  foreign, 
lieathen  powers.  (See  Neh.  iv,  36.  37;  Ezra  ix,  8.  9.)  To  be  such 
tributaries  mortified  them  to  the  core.  In  their  strone:  feeling  of 
themselves  as  a  nation  and  one  with  a  God-given,  hereditary  territory, 
they  were  continually  irritated  at  a  state  of  such  dependence.  They 
could  not  but  regard  it  as  actual  slavery.  And  slavery  it  essentially 
was.  They  would  bear  it  submissively,  though,  as  long  as  it  was  not 
too  oppressive  and  degrading.  But  as  a  reproach  and  disgrace  it 
nevertheless  appeared  to  them  at  all  times.  For  a  redemption  from 
that  dependence  they  craved  and  prayed  with  devout  hearts.  This 
national  consummation  was,  as  they  expected,  to  be  reached  through 
the  arrival  of  its  central  personage — the  God-appointed  King — 
Messiah. 

A  vague  notion  of  the  realization  of  the  Messianic  hope  in  the  per- 
son of  their  leader,  Zerubbabel,  may  indeed  have  struck  the  returned 
congregation  of  exiles.  This  grandee  who  headed  the  caravan  of  liber- 
ated Jews  on  the  return  march  toward  the  loved  Jerusalem,  was  really 
descended  from  David.  Yet  how  grievous  must  have  been  the  subse- 
quent disillusion,  had  they  really  indulged  such  a  notion.  For  they 
"soon  found  out  that  their  governor  was  not  even  powerful  enough  to 
carry  on  and  complete  the  building  of  the  Temple.  It  remained  un- 
finished for  twenty  years.  So  little  was  Zerubbabel  subsequently  re- 
garded as  the  Messiah,  that  the  prophet  Zechariah  had  to  predict  another 
"  branch"  (iii,  8;  comp.  Jer.  xxxiii,  15)  for  accomplishing  the  work. 
Far  from  being  an  independent  Jewish  sovereign,  Zerubbabel  was  no 
more  than  a  commissioned  functionary  of  the  Persian  crown.  His 
political  dignity  consisted  mainly,  we  suppose,  in  being  the  responsible 
revenue  deliverer  to  the  satraps  of  Persia.  'Nov  Avas  the  office  of 
Jewish  governor  hereditary  in  his  family. 

There  may,  indeed,  have  existed,  in  Judea  during  the  second 
State  a  line  of  titular  princes  whose  descent  was  from  David.  But  if 
there  were  such  distinguished  personages,  we  are  confident  that  they 
were  not  invested  with  any  political  authority.  Furthermore,  it  is 
historically  certain  that  the  incumbents  of  the  chief  magistracy  of  the 
Jewish  nation  during  the  second  Commonwealth  were,  at  all  events 
from  the  Greek  period  forward,  the  high  priests,  and  not  any  secular 
princes.  Josephus  knows  of  no  other  heads  of  the  nation  than  the 
high  priests,  even  from  the  beginning  of  the  second  State.  But  even 
these  high  priests,  we  contend  on  well-based  research  (against  Schuerer 
and  Wellhausen),  were  not  independent  rulers.     It  was  the  national 


84  THEOLOGY. 

council,  the  Saiihedrin,  which  the  Jewish  people  regarded  as  their 
only  rightful  supreme  authority.  The  high  priests  derived  their  title 
from  that  representative  national  body.  Whatever  autonomy  the  for- 
eign masters  left  to  the  nation  was  vested  in  the  Sanhedrin.  From 
this  supreme  council  emanated  all  the  power  and  prerogatives  enjoyed 
by  the  high  priests.  For  the  new  state  was  in  approximate  accommo- 
dation to  the  theory  of  Mosaism,  a  democratic  theocracy.  Accord- 
ingly, it  was  the  senate  alone  that  held  the  national  judicature.  The 
high  priest  had  no  judicial  competence  of  his  own.  All  the  prestige 
by  which  he  excelled  the  other  senators  was,  that  he  passed  for  the 
diplomatic  and  fiscal  representative  of  the  people  before  the  foreign 
governments  to  which  the  Jewish  nation  was  subject. 

Passing  now  from  the  Persian  to  the  Greek  period,  we  have  to 
say  that  when  Alexander  of  Macedon  made  himself  "  master  of  all 
Asia,"  the  Jews  of  Palestine  submitted  voluntarily  to  him.  They 
hailed  this  European  conqueror  with  genuine,  hearty  confidence.  In 
it  they  were  not  disappointed.  The  two  centuries  of  dreary  and  hope- 
less national  life  under  the  Persian  reign  were  with  tiie  new  Mace- 
donian epoch  succeeded  by  a  comparatively  long  term  of  peace  and 
fair  and  intelligent  dealing  on  the  part  of  the  Greek  rulers.  The 
favors  which  Alexander  showed  to  the  Jews  generally,  and  the  privi- 
leges he  accorded  to  those  of  Alexandria,  are  known  from  history. 

The  rule  of  the  Ptolemies  over  Palestine  after  the  division  of 
Alexander's  empire  was,  on  the  whole,  mild  and  pacific.  The  Jews 
bore  their  tril)utary  relations  to  them  very  probably  without  murmur. 
They  always  acquiesced  submissively  in  this  dependent  condition  under 
judicious  and  humane  government. 

That  the  traditional  Messianic  expectation  was  during  those  earlier 
centuries  of  Greek  dominion  as  much  alive  as  bef(^re  can  not  be 
doubted.  But  there  were,  we  judge,  few,  if  any,  occasions  for  any 
sudden  stir  and  excitement  of  the  national  feeling,  toward  an  inde- 
pendent Messianic  government.  The  Palestinian  Jews  may  have 
suffered  periodically  from  the  wars  carried  on  between  Egypt  and 
Syria  since  the  death  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  Yet  they  bore  this 
fate  patiently  as  long  as  their  sacred  rights  were  not  invaded,  their 
honor  not  assailed,  and  no  violent  attempts  made  upon  the  security  of 
their  lives  and  interests.  That  their  Messianic  hope  will  have  in  tliat 
century,  as  ever  before  and  afterward,  varied  in  degree  of  fervor  ac- 
cording to  the  com.pk'xion  of  the  times,  may  be  taken  for  granted. 
The  logical  postulate  that  what  lives  at  an  earlier  and  exists  still  at  a 
later  j)oint  of  time  can  not  iiave  died  out  in  the  meantime,  holds  good 
with  the   Messianic   hope  as  with   all  other  objects.     But  aside  from 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES,   ETC.  85 

this  unfailing  truism  we  can  bring  positive  proof  tliat  there  never  was 
any  cessation  of  the  hope  of  the  Messiali  through  the  entire  length 
of  the  second  Jewish  State.  Our  information  comes  from  the  ancient 
liturgy.  By  turning  these  early  compositions  t()  account,  we  will  find 
that  much  as  the  historical  records  have  left  us  in  the  dark  as  to  the 
question  of  the  later  pre-Christian  INIessianic  expectations,  there  is  at 
least  one  source  which,  if  properly  viewed,  diffuses  sufficient  light 
upon  it.  This  source  is  the  original  type  of  daily  service  handed 
down  to  us  from  the  earliest  days  of  the  reorganized  Judean  com- 
munity. 

A  detailed  consideration  of  the  old  liturgical  passages  bearing  ou 
Messianisra  is  precluded  on  this  occasion.  Briefly  we  will  say  in  this 
place  that  our  oldest  forms  of  the  prayer  have  as  their  substantial 
keynote  Israel's  national  liope  of  salvation.  Those  forms  we  hold  to 
date  essentially  back,  not  only  to  the  Men  of  the  Great  Assembly,  but 
to  the  sages  of  the  earlier  national  councils.  Those  wise  representa- 
tive men — Scribes  as  they  are  called — will  have  composed,  soon  after 
tlie  completion  of  the  Temple,  suitable  types  of  service  for  public  and 
private  occasions.  The  year  500  B.  C.  may  have  already  witnessed 
the  institution  of  that  liturgy  which  has  come  down  to  us  with  the 
stamp  of  antiquity.  We  invite  students  of  our  liturgy  to  cast  a  glance 
at  the  two  benedictions  preceding  and  the  one  following  the  Shema- 
chapters.  The  two  former  have  significant  Messianic  clauses,  the  last 
is  exclusively  Messianic.  We  call  their  attention  further  to  the  tra- 
ditional eighteen  foi-ms  of  dail}'  prayer.  Upon  close  research  they 
will  discover  that  the  theme  of  the  present  forms  1,  2,  7,  10,  II,  14, 
15,  and  17  is  either  entirely  or  partly  Messianic.  Even  one  of  the 
three  extant  formulas  of  the  third  benediction,  the  Kedushah,  has  a 
Messianic  reference. 

It  may  perhaps  be  inexact  to  apply  the  e])ithet  Messianic  to  the 
contents  of  all  those  prayers  just  noticed.  We  know  that  it  is  more 
correct  to  say  that,  their  theme  is  that  of  "salvation."  The  word  sal- 
vation comprehends  more  aptly  the.  various  points  into  which  the  hope 
of  national-religions  restoration  is  divided.  But  as  custom  has  at- 
tached to  such  restoration  the  general  term  Messianic,  we  too  may  use 
it  here  indiscriminately  as  to  the  various  relations  of  Israel's  latter-day 
expectation. 

Let  us,  in  addition  to  the  foregoing  specimens,  mention,  yet,  two 
out  of  the  four  benedictions  of  the  traditional  Tlianksgiving  Prayer 
after  meals.  That  the  original  cliaracter  of  this  prayer  has  not  been 
altered  in  its  run  tlirough  successive  ages,  we  may  assume  with  some 
degree  of  certainty.     It  is  safe  to  say  that  all  the  Jewish  stock  prayers 


86  THEOLOGY. 

dating  back  to  the  ages  of  the  Men  of  the  Great  Assembly  remained, 
in  regard  to  type  and  even  order,  the  same  during  the  whole  Persian, 
Grecian,  Maccabean,  Herodian,  and  Roman  periods.  Those  two 
thanksgiving  benedictfons  are,  as  will  be  borne  out  by  an  examination 
of  their  tenor.  Messianic,  too.  Even  our  popular  Kaddish  prayer 
was  originally  meant  to  be  no  other  than  an  invocation  of  God  to  let 
his  Kingdom,  the  Messianic,  come  speedily.  Our  ancient  liturgy 
offers  us  then,  as  can  be  clearly  seeu.  a  direct  and  eminent  illustration 
of  the  Jewish  thought  and  feeling  concerning  Messianism  or  national 
futurity,  as  maintained  for  the  four  hundred  years  preceding  the  Syro- 
Greek  rule  over  the  Jewish  land. 

History  has,  accordingly,  not  been  so  envious  as  to  foreclose  for 
us  a  tolerably  clear  view  of  Israel's  national  hopes  during  that  long 
stretch  of  time.  It  has  in  any  case  not  withheld  from  us  the  oppor- 
tunity of  making  out,  by  the  way  of  close  investigation,  the  attitude 
which  the  patriotic  and  pious  Jews  of  those  ages  held  toward  the 
inherited  Messianic  expectation.  We  have  from  our  transmitted  an- 
cient liturgy  abundant  evidence  to  prove  that  this  expectation  was 
incessantly  alive  during  the  whole  existence  of  the  second  State.  We 
learn  to  satisfaction  that  what  the  prophets  had  foretold  as  to  the  re-, 
instatement  of  Israel  to  their  own  land,  government,  and  sauctuarv, 
was  not  inanimately  imbedded  in  obscure  minds  of  literature,  or  only 
silently  embodied  in  the  spiritual  songs  of  sacred  bards,  but  made  up 
an  integrant,  solid,  and  living  part  of  their  soul's  innermost  hopes 
and  aspirations. 

We  have  now  to  pass  to  a  brief  review  of  the  Syro-Greek  do- 
minion, from  about  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  B.  C.  With 
the  entrance  of  Antiochus  the  Great  on  the  scene,  the  Jewish  affairs 
took  a  decided  turn  for  the  worse.  The  fierce  persecution  of  the  Jews 
by  his  sou,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  is  amply  known  to  readers  of  his- 
tory. Despair  had  in  those  days  seized  upon  the  ftxitliful  when  they 
were  by  that  mad  tyrant  forced  to  abjure,  for  the  first  time  in 
their  national  existence,  the  God  of  their  fathers,  and  embrace  the 
pagan  worship,  a  worship  which  was  in  their  eyes  "an  abomination  of 
desolation."  The  Maccabee  uprising  and  struggles  to  avenge  those 
unheard-of  Syrian  attempts  of  profanation  of  their  sacred  institutions 
and  all  the  atrocities  committed  against  tlu)ir  nation  by  Antiochus, 
his  menials,  and  his  army,  are  set  fortli  in  the  annals  of  history.  In 
those  troublous  days  the  cry  for  speedy  delivery,  the  prayer  for  the  ar- 
rival of  Messiah,  the  son  of  David,  will  have  gone  up  from  the  heav- 
ing breasts  of  thousands  of  the  pious  Jews.  How  long  that  dire 
fatality  would   hang  over  the  nation,  no  one  could   tell.     Tiiere    was 


MESSIANIC   IDEA    FROM   THE   EARLIEST    TIMES,    ETC.  87 

no  prophet  who  could  forebode  the  future.  Prophecy  was  then  be- 
lieved to  be  extinct.  Yet  there  was  a  would-be  prophet  who  came 
forward  to  make  known  the  end  of  the  national  sorrows.  His  assumed 
name  was  Daniel.  His  book,  which  made  a  powerful  impression  upon 
the  mystically  inclined  of  all  after  times,  contains,  among  other  mat- 
ter, four  prophetical  visions  (in  chapters  vii-xii).  All  of  these  alleged 
oracles  aim  to  point  out,  as  modern  criticism  has  established,  the  early 
downfall  of  the  fanatical  tyrant,  Autiochus  Epiphanes.  This  down- 
fall would,  the  seer  advances,  be  accomplished  miraculously  by  the 
God  of  Heaven,  Israel's  God.  The  propliet  tells  us  that  he  was  trans- 
lated to  Heaven  where  God  held  court  with  his  angels,  pronouncing 
the  sentence  of  destruction  upon  the  arrogant  beast.  But  this  aveng- 
ing doom  alone  was  not  suthcient  to  our  visionary.  He  felt  himself 
called  upon  to  offer  yet  greater  consolation  to  his  hearers  or  readers. 
In  a  nightly  vision  he  "  beholds  one  like  the  son  of  man  coming  with 
the  clouds  of  heaven.  .  .  .  And  there  was  given  him  dominion 
and  glory,  and  a  kingdom  that  all  people,  nations,  and  languages 
should  serve  him;  his  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion  which  shall 
not  pass  away." 

This  apparition,  the  subject  of  which  is  a  nebulous  quasi-son  of 
man,  had  an  astounding  effect  upon  the  minds  of  Messianic  believers 
during  that  second  century.  The  author  of  the  apocryphal  book  of 
Enoch  lias  copied  and  adopted  for  his  spiritualistic  Messiah  that  very 
title  "  son  of  man,"  leaving  out,  however,  the  particle  of  comparison, 
"like."  He  uses  it  alternately  witii  the  name  "  son  of  God"  for  the 
same  supernal  personage  of  his.  Likewise  has  Jesus,  as  the  gospels 
show,  called  iiimself,  in  his  capacity  of  Messiah,  by  the  name  "son  of 
man,"  and  that  much  more  frequently  and  seemingly  in  preference  to 
the  other  title  "son  of  God." 

Nay  he  emphasized  his  real  Messianic  claim  under  the  form  of 
that  Danielle  vision.  His  reapperance  about  the  end  of  this  world  to 
perfect  his  Messianic  Kingdom  which  he  declared  to  be  accomplished 
at  an  early  date,  Jesus  repeatedly  enunciated  to  be  in  or  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven.  In  that  incontestably  authentic  gospel  account, 
that  of  his  trial  before  the  high  priest,  in  which  he  avows  himself  "  the 
Messiah,  the  son  of  God,"  he  further  asserts  of  himself,  "hereafter 
shall  ye  see  the  son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power  (God) 
and  coming  iu  the  clouds  of  heaven."  The  stupendous  influence  ex- 
ercised by  that  Danielle  image  is  clearly  recognized  from  this  and  kin- 
dred circumstances. 

There  are  critics,  let  us  remark,  who  insist  that  the  author  of 
Daniel  never  thought  of  foreshadowing  a  personal  deliverer  and  ruler 


88  THEOLOGY. 

to  come.  They  argue  from  the  sequel  of  the  description  of  that 
vision,  that  the  "kingdom"  was  not  really  promised  to  one  man,  but 
to  the  people  of  the  holy  ones  in  heaven,  that  is,  to'  the  saints  in 
Israel  whose  guardians  the  angels  in  heaven  are. 

Ambiguous  enough  that  Danielic  vision  is  in  very  truth.  Yet  in 
spite  of  all  this  ambiguity,  were  the  great  majority  of  past  and  present 
expositors  not  frightened  from  accepting  that  relation  as  typifying  a 
Messianic  one-man  rule. 

To  return  once  more  to  our  would-be  prophet.  By  tlie  way  of 
mystical  calcnlatious,  he  brings  out  the  revelation  that  the  stereotyped 
seventy  years  which  Jeremiah  had  set  down  as  the  term  of  the  desola- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  mean  not  years,  but  weeks  of  years,  that  is,  seven 
times  seventy  years.  By  this  prodigious  stretch,  the  extent  of  Israel's 
entire  national  suffering  could  be  api)roxiinately  brought  down  to 
Daniel's  own,  really  the  Maccabean,  time. 

The  end  of  that  suffering  he  predicts  in  a  sort  of  veiled  oracle. 
The  sum  and  substance  of  it  no  doubt  was,  that  with  the  death  of  the 
haled  persecutor,  Aniiochus,  a  real  glorious  and  golden  era  would  be 
ushered  in  for  the  faithful  of  Israel.  They  would  receive  the  govern- 
ment from  the  God  of  heaven  and  possess  it  forever  more.  Now  let 
us  ask,  was  this  prediction  fulfilled?  Did  the  anticipated  salvation 
come  to  pass?  Was  independent  government,  with  or  without  a 
kino- — Messiah  — vouchsafed  to  Israel  after  the  death  of  Autiocluis,  the 
terminus  laid  down  by  Daniel  for  the  cessation  of  Israel's  misfortune? 
By  no  means. 

Judas  Maccabeus  accomplished,  indeed,  the  reparation  of  Israel's 
religious  instituiiuns.  He  vindicated  most  successfully,  together  with 
the  holy  warriors  who  followed  him,  the  honor  of  his  country  and  the 
purity  of  the  ancestral  religion.  But  political  independence  from 
Syria  he  did  not  achieve. 

From  161  B.  C.  on,  when  Jonathan,  his  brother,  had  succeeded 
him,  a  sort  of  free  government  with  fair  ])olitical  privileges  was  estab- 
lished. His  brother  Simon  secured,  nineteen  years  later,  even  total 
political  independence  from  Syjia.  But  it  was  not  of  long  duration. 
Judea  became  afterward  again  tributary  to  Syria.  From  this  condi- 
tion it  was  not  ultimately  freed  till  about  tlie  year  12S  B.  C,  under 
John  Hyrcanus. 

What  were  the  Messianic  expectations  of  the  Jews  ^ince  the 
gr  )wth  of  the  Maccabee  dominion?  Scarcely  can  it  be  sup})osed  that 
the  cry  for  a  Messiah  burst  forth  with  loikl  accents  while  the  Maccabee 
prince,  Simon,  ruled  over  the  conntry.  The  nation,  recognizing  his 
merits,  chose  him  in  a  collective  assembly  "  high  priest  and  chief  for- 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES,    ETC.  89 

ever  until  a  prophet  would  rise"  (who  might,  namely,  give,  in  the 
name  of  God,  diflerent  directions  about  the  government). 

The  latter  clause  suggests  to  us  that  that  Jewish  assembly  were 
diffident  in  their  minds  as  to  their  liberty  in  designating  popular  rulers 
without  a  direct  divine  authority.  Prevalent,  we  presume,  was  in 
their  thoughts  the  possibility  of  a  sudden,  authoritative  proclamation, 
through  an  accredited  oracle,  that  the  ideal  king  of  the  line  of  David 
was  coming  to  take  charge  of  the  divine  government — the  theocracy 
of  the  Jewish  nation. 

Provisionally,  however,  it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  the  Jewish 
people  were  then  content  with  the  prevailing  order  of  things.  If, 
further,  it  be  true  what  the  author  of  the  first  book  of  Maccabees 
avers,  that  in  those  days  "every  man  was  sitting  under  his  vine,  and 
under  his  fig-tree,"  we  can  not  for  one  moment  suppose  that,  under 
such  realizations  of  Messianic  bliss,  there  should  have  existed  an  im- 
pulsive yearning  toward  another  ruler,  the  imagined  Messiah  of  the 
family  of  David.  A  tone  of  calm  religious  waiting  for  him  will  have, 
we  allow,  even  then  pervaded  the  souls  of  the  pious.  But  that  it 
should  have  had  the  character  of  an  impatient  longing,  wi;  can  not 
consistently  with  reason  presume. 

The  set  prayers  for  national  restoration  were  doubtless  continued 
to  be  offered  then  as  before,  in  public  as  in  private.  The  hopes  of 
Israel's  futurity,  once  cast  in  a  fixed  mold  by  the  venerated  Scribes, 
enjoyed  a  popular  respect  and  awe  which  consecrated  them  into  invio- 
lable canons.  Devotional  formularies,  sanctioned  by  anterior  author- 
ity and  age,  obtained  always  a  strong,  tenacious  hold  over  orthodox 
people,  however  meaningless  and  soulless  they  may  have  become 
through  the  change  and  progress  of  the  times.  But  for  all  that,  it  is 
impossible  for  us  to  believe  that  there  was  any  particular  pathetic 
force  to  the  prayers  for  restoration  recited  in  the  days  of  the  Maccabee 
ruler,  Simon. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  prosperous  reign  of  his  son,  John 
Hyrcanus,  B.  C.  135-105.  Under  him  almost  a  Davidic  splendor, 
greatness,  and  power  prevailed.  By  the  side  of  proud  national  self- 
eonsciousness  the  niorbid  sigli  for  an  unknown  and  unknowable  royal 
personage  who  should  yet  improve  upon  the  present  common  happi- 
ness, can  not  well  be  imagined  to  have  burst  forth. 

The  Messianic  vision,  it  must  be  admitted  by  all,  was  originally 
born  of  gloom.  It  was  always  expressed,  with  more  or  less  demon- 
strative force,  under  somber  aspects  of  the  times.  Its  "reason  of 
existence"  was  either  the  dreary  night  of  oppression  or  the  dim  twi- 
light of  a  dubious  destiny.     In  the  serene  radiance  of  the  light  of  free- 


90  THEOLOGY. 

dom  and  peace,  or  the  lucid  gleam  of  temporal  bliss,  however,  the 
motive  for  its  being  is  only  hypothetical.  If  it  nevertheless  exists 
under  such  favorable  conditions,  it  is  due  to  a  mere  emotional  attach- 
ment to  the  past  and  a  pious  repugnance  to  part  from  the  wonted 
track  cut  by  venerated  ancestors  and  trodden  all  along  in  subsequent 
ages.  That,  therefore,  the  Jews  were  under  the  prosperous  reign  of 
the  high-priestly  prince,  John  Hyrcanus,  little  troubled  about  the  Mes- 
sianic future,  may  be  set  down  as  a  reasonable  conclusion. 

Yet,  while  all  this  seems  natural  in  the  common  point  of  view, 
and  even  obvious  from  a  general  glance  at  the  outward  aspect  of  the 
Jewish  affairs  of  that  time,  we  must  not  conceal  a  counter-view  inev- 
itably thrust  upon  us  in  the  present  consideration. 

This  contrary  impression  results  from  the  fact  that  a  serious  and 
far-reaching  religious  disturbance  entered  the  Jewish  life  at  some  junct- 
ure of  that  prince's  reign.  It  was  when  he  deserted  orthodox  Phari- 
saic Judaism  and  joined  the  Sadduceau  party.  That  the  Sadducees 
were,  for  their  rejection  of  the  traditions,  the  disavowal  of  resurrect 
tion,  and  a  latitudinarian  mode  of  religious  life  generally,  regarded  by 
the  Pharisaic  votaries  and  the  people  at  large  who  adhered  to  them  as 
their  teachers  and  guides,  as  heterodox,  later  even  as  heretics,  is  no- 
torious. From  the  time,  therefore,  that  John  Hyrcanus  introduced 
Sadduceeism  and  raised  it  to  the  throne,  till  Pompey  made  an  end  to 
the  domestic  Asmonean  government,  there  must  have  sprung  up 
among  the  orthodox  masses  a  decided  discontent  with  that  ruler  and  a 
strong  revulsion  of  their  innermost  sentiments,  which  interfered  se- 
riously witli  their  feeling  of  happiness,  otherwise  secured  by  the 
strength  and  success  of  his  reign. 

But  it  was  not  only  Sadduceeism  on  the  throne  that  aggravated 
the  pious  sensibilities  of  the  people.  There  came  to  it  yet  the  bold  at- 
tempt of  absolute  monarchy,  of  kingship  symbolized  by  the  diadem. 
Ilyrcanus's  son,  Aristobulus  I.,  was  the  first  Asmonean  prince  who  put 
on  the  regal  diadem.  This  was  to  the  Jewish  people  of  those  latter 
days — so  vast  a  transformation  had  been  wrought  upon  their  minds  in 
the  post-exilian  period^ — an  odious  embleu)  of  irresponsible  absolutism. 

Against  such  domination  of  mastering  rulers  their  hearts  rebelled. 
They  even  denounced  it  openly  as  irreconcilable  with  their  national 
destiny.  We  meet  in  Josephus  with  two  accounts  of  such  open  depre- 
cations of  formal  kingship  by  the  representatives  of  the  nation  ;  the 
one  in  Pompey's  time,  which  was  directly  aimed  at  the  Asmonean 
j)rince,  Aristobulus  II.,  and  the  other  about  sixty  years  later,  after  the 
death  of  Herod.     That  the  feverish  nation  broke  forth  into  vigorous- 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES,    ETC.  91 

demonstrations  against  crowned  royalty  on  both  those  occasions  is  very 
suggestive  to  us. 

AVhat  we  venture  to  derive  from  those  marked  expressions  of 
sorely  agitated  national  sentiments  is,  that  the  cry  for  the  "  Kingdom 
of  God"  is  associahle  with,  and  dates  back  to,  the  early  days  of  de- 
tested Sadducean-Asmonean  rule,  if  not  already  to  the  earlier  period 
of  the  Maccabee  struggles.  We  mean  to  say,  that  that  phrase,  old- 
established  as  it  was  in  its  affirmative,  theocratic  and  theological  bear- 
ing, came  prominently  forward  in  an  additional  negative  sense  as  early 
at  least  as  the  hated-ruling  Sadduceeism  usurped  the  insignia  of  over- 
powering tyranny,  especially  its  most  repulsive  sign,  the  royal  diadem. 

As  a  true  and  devout  exjjouent  of  those  combined  meanings  at- 
tached to  the  expression,  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  appears  to  us  the  author 
of  the  apocryphal  Psalms  of  Solomon.  These  compositions  were,  in 
our  opinion,  written  by  the  son  of  a  Pharisaic  fugitive  from  the  fury  of 
Alexander  Janneus,  about  the  middle  of  the  first  century  B.  C. 

At  the  time  of  his  writing,  there  had  already  passed  over  the  na- 
tion the  twenty-seven  years  of  the  rule  and  atrocious  misgovei-nmcnt 
of  that  most  corrupt  Asmoneau  prince.  Also  the  fierce  contention  be- 
tween his  two  sons  had  already  brouglit  on  the  armed  arbitration  by 
Pompey,  who  subdued  the  Jewish  land  into  tribute  to  Rome.  The 
lamentable  havoc  made  by  this  triumphant  conqueror  at  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem,  as  well  as  the  great  suffering  and  near  partial  exile  at- 
tendant upon  the  later  invasion  of  Cassius,  were  fresh  in  the  memory 
of  our  psalmodist. 

Open  the  book  of  his  Psalter  and  read.  You  will  meet  most 
touching  Messianic  outcries  and  invocations.  The  ring  of  his  Mes- 
sianic sighs  is  as  forcible  as  it  is  melancholy.  We  can  not  here  enter  upon 
a  particular  estimation  of  that  most  invaluable  collection — invaluable 
the  more  because  it  is  the  only  Jewish  literary  product  of  the  later 
pre-Christian  ages  which  treats  of  the  Messiah  in  a  common-sense  style 
and  does  not  wrap  up  its  expectations  in  unintelligible  hints  or  entangle 
us  in  a  labyrinth  of  impossible  imagery  and  confusing  ciphers. 

Summarily  let  us  observe  that  its  author  betrays  at  once  an  in- 
vincible loathing  and  rankling  hatred  for  the  degenerated  and  impious 
Asmonean  dynasty,  and  a  strong,  patriotic,  religious  antipathy  against 
the  newly  established  foreign-  supremacy,  the  Roman.  As  an  unholy 
power,  for  its  image  worship,  moi'al  corruption,  and  brutality,  the 
world-conquering  Rome  was  already  then  viewed  by  the  serious- 
minded  sous  of  Israel. 

A  relief  from  the  state  of  misery  and  degradation  into  which  the 
nation  had  fallen  at  the  time  of  our  psalmodist,  he  could  expect  but 


92  THEOLOGY. 

from  God.  Him  he  implores,  indeed,  as  the  only  savior  of  Israel,  to 
let  His  mercy  soon  appear  over  them  and  to  send  as  ruler  his  own 
Messiah,  the  son  of  David,  thus  verifying  His  ancient  oath  that  the 
kingdom  should  not  part  from  the  house  of  David  forever. 

Did  his  tuneful  and  pathetic  strains,  let  us  inquire,  meet  with 
Providential  response?  Did  the  anticipated  Messiah  come?  No. 
There  was  even  a  worse  fate  in  store  for  the  Jewish  nation  than  the 
one  our  poet  had  witnessed  and  reflected  on. 

It  was  the  crushing  and  insupportable  misrule  of  the  Iduraean 
usurper,  Herod,  which  lasted  for  forty  long  and  weary  years.  Herod 
"  filled  the  countxy  with  poverty  and  iniquity  and  inflicted  more  sufier- 
ing  on  the  nation  during  his  reign  than  they  had  sustained  through  all 
the  five  centuries  previous" — this  was  the  bitter  complaint  which  a 
Jewish  senatorial  deputation  brought  before  the  Emperor  Augustus  in 
the  year  4  B.  C,  after  that  blood-thirsty  monster  had  passed  from  the 
living. 

It  was  on  this  occasion,  too,  that  these  Jewish  representatives 
begged  that  their  nation  should  have  no  more  kings.  Their  official 
protestation  against  kingship  was,  as  we  suggested  above,  the  negative 
side  of  Israel's  constant  watchword,  the  "  Kingdom  of  Heaven," 

Tliey  })leaded  further  "for  liberty  to  live  by  their  own  laws," 
avowing  in  all  other  lespects  profound  loyalty  to  the  imperial  sovereign. 
They  asked  that  their  laud  be  joined  to  the  Syrian  province,  rather 
than  be  held  longer  under  the  thraldom  of  a  domestic  tyrant  like 
Archelaus. 

It  was  in  this  very  year,  too,  and  in  the  absence  of  that  delega- 
tion, that  a  violent  revolt  broke  out  in  the  Jewish  land.  The  popular 
uprising  took  its  start  on  the  Pentecost  feast  in  Jerusalem.  The 
whole  nation  from  one  border  of  the  country  to  another,  seemed  to 
have  been  seized  by  an  instantaneous  impulse  to  make  a  bold  strike  for 
liberty.  Tlie  insurrection  spread  all  over  Judea,  Galilee,  Perea,  and 
Idumea.  The  inflamed  and  infuriated  masses  who  besieged  the  for- 
tress of  Jerusalem  had  to  deal  with  the  ])itiless  and  rapacious  pro- 
curator of  Syria,  Sabinus.  They  were  even,  for  all  that  we  can  learn 
to  the  contrary,  without  any  commander. 

During  those  convulsions  which  shook  the  Jewish  land  to  its 
center,  there  occurred  a  characteristic  insurrectionist  movement  which 
deserves  special  notice  in  this  place.  Joseph  us  tells  us  that  the  insur- 
gents of  Galilee  had  as  leader,  Judas ;  th(jse  of  Perea,  Simon  ;  and 
those  of  the  valley  of  Judea,  north-west  of  Jerusalem,  a  shepherd 
named  Atlironges. 

The   last  two   leaders  he  lets  put  on  kingly  diadems.     Of  Judas 


MESSIANIC    IDEA    FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES,  ETC.  93 

of  Galilee  he  only  says  that  he  had  the  "ambitious  desire  of  the 
royal  dignity."  Kings  were,  he  informs  us,  moreover,  created  on  all 
sides. 

We  are  of  opinion  that  those  kingly  agitators  were  Messianic  pre- 
tenders. As  wonld-he  Messiahs  they  have  possibly  succeeded  in  drawing 
mobs  after  them  by  miracles  of  liberation.  For  all  those  "false 
prophets"  whom  Josephus  introduces  here  and  thei-e  as  pretending  lib- 
erators of  the  nation  in  the  Roman  times,  were  such  as  claimed  "di- 
vine inspiration,"  finding  credit  with  the  vulgar  by  performing  first 
some  "signals  of  liberty"  and  setting  out  afterward  on  their  martial 
deeds  of  deliverance. 

We  venture  to  believe  that  the  kingly  pretenders  in  question  were 
of  about  the  same  type  as  tJ":Ose  "  Axlse  prophets."  Scarcely,  we 
think,  could  those  adventurers  have  succeeded  in  attracting  mobs  for 
their  designs,  had  they  not  joined  with  their  presumptuous  boast  of 
kingship  the  transcendent  claim  of  supernatural  endowment  for  their 
alleged  office  of  liberation.  This  presumed  call  from  Heaven  tliey 
would  doubtless  manifest  by  performing  some  magical  feats. 

It  is  needless  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  mind  of  those  agi- 
tators, lu  excited  days,  impulsive  men  with  an  adventurous  spirit 
rarely  fail  in  finding  a  following.  An  ignorant  and  easily  seducible 
rabble  can  be  mustered  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  To  win 
their  confidence  by  some  luring  methods  of  imposture  is  an  easy  mat- 
ter. The  crafty  and  fanatical  leaders  know  how  to  improve  upon  their 
susceptibilities  and  use  them  for  their  selfish  or  vain-glorious  schemes. 
In  pursuing  them,  the  designing  deluders  affect  greater  and  greater  su- 
periority over  their  dupes,  till  at  last  they  become  themselves,  many 
of  them,  a  prey  to  the  frenzy  of  indomitable  egoism,  to  the  point  even 
of  believing  themselves  in  the  paroxysm  of  their  conceit,  extraor- 
dinary beings,  gifted  with  powers  inapproachable  to  all  the  rest.  That 
an  overwrought  egoism  possessed  also  the  minds  of  those  kingly  agi- 
tators, whether  they  passed  themselves  off"  for  Messiahs  or  not,  is  not 
to  be  questioned.  Their  movement,  we  have  to  add,  was  unsuccessful. 
The  whole  revolt  was  indeed  soon  quelled.  Varus's  mighty  forces  had 
little  difficulty  in  crushing  the  revolting  multitudes  who  had  attempted 
to  shake  off"  the  Idumean  yoke. 

Before  concluding  we  have  yet  to  mention  another,  much  more 
important  and  momentous  pre-Christian  movement.  It  is  that  of  the 
same  Judas  of  Galilee  who  raised  an  insurrection  after  Judea  had  been 
incorporated  into  the  Roman  empire  as  a  province  and  annexed  to 
Syria,  in  the  year  6  A.  D.     With  this  act,  the  political  autouomy  of  the 


94  THEOLOGY. 

Jewish  State  came,  strictly  considered,  to  an  eud,  to  be  restored  no 
more  while  Rome  held  its  sway  over  it. 

A  year  after  that  annexation,  the  Roman  authorities  introduced  a 
system  of  direct  assessment  on  the  property  and  persons  of  the  Judeaus. 
It  bore  the  Latin  name  census.  This  census  enacted  by  Quirinius 
called  forth  a  violent  irritation  and  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  entire 
Jewish  people.  They  held  it  an  "awful  thing"  to  have  to  obey  the 
foreign  dictation  of  enrollment  for  taxation.  It  was  not  so  much  the 
unheard-of  direct  taxes  levied  from  individual  inhabitants,  or  the 
chafing  burden  of  the  new  taxation  imposed  on  then),  as  the  coer- 
cion into  the  despotic  will  of  the  Roman  masters,  that  made  the  census 
so  repulsive  to  them  and  aggravated  their  resentment  to  the  highest 
pitch.  Yet  the  excited  multitude  was  soon  prevailed  upon  to  calm 
down  and  subside  into  the  inevitable  with  loyal  subordination. 

There  were,  however,  enough  Jewish  people,  and  those  mainly  of 
the  younger  class,  who  would  not  consent  to  endure  the  new  harsh  en- 
actment without  a  forcible  attempt  at  redress.  They  were  those  who 
held,  to  use  an  expression  of  Lecky's,  "  non-resistance  incompatible 
Avith  political  liberty."  They  found  a  ready  leader  in  the  person  of 
the  heroic  Judas  of  Galilee,  the  same  who  had  previously  acted  as 
head  of  the  Galilean  revolters. 

This  time  Judas  came  forward  as  the  champion  of  all  the  insur- 
gents of  the  land,  to  lead  them  forth  to  victory  or  death  by  open  and 
defiant  armed  resistance. 

Did  he  set  up  for  a  Messiah  at  this  juncture?  From  a  relation  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (v,  37),  it  would  almost  seem,  by  implication 
at  least,  that  the  present  venture  was  of  a  Messianic  sort.  But  for 
us  it  is  impossible  to  form  such  an  idea  of  that  gallant  Gaulonite. 
His  memorable  watch-word,  "God  is  the  only  Ruler  and  Lord,"  by 
which  he  threw  the  gauntlet  at  every  form  of  human  despotism,  pre- 
cludes positively  any  royal  and,  consequently.  Messianic  aspiration 
having  taken  hold  of  his  mind. 

That  declaration  was  a  bold  manifesto  thrust  out  against  any 
foreign  restraint,  no  less  than  against  domestic  tyranny. 

Different  from  the  Pharisaic  rabbis  and  the  larger  body  of  the 
common  people  who  waited  idly,  though  eagerly,  for  a  miraculous 
manifestation  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  would  bring  to  an  end 
forever  all  native  and  foreign  tyrannical  sovereignty  alike,  the  ad- 
herents of  Judas  concluded  to  be  their  own  Messiahs,  and  help  for- 
ward the  independent  self-government  of  the  nation,  under  God,  in 
accordance  with  the  Mosaic  constitution. 

Did  those  zealotic  Independents,  then,  not  cherish  the  hope  of  a 


MESSIANIC   IDEA   FROM    THE   EARLIEST   TIMES,    ETC.  95 

comiug  personal  Messiah  at  all?  We  can  not  tell.  What  we  know 
from  the  invidious  Jewish  historian,  Josephus,  himself  is,  that  they 
had  "an  inviolable  attachment  to  liberty."  For  it  they  wonld,  in- 
deed, hazard  life,  substance,  and  all.  For  it  they  wonld  buckle  on 
tlieir  armor  and  enter  into  a  desperate  struggle  witii  the  Roman 
colossus,  fully  aware,  as  they  must  have  been,  that  they  could  be  no 
match  for  it. 

Their  revolutionary  attempt  was  the  noblest  contest  for  liberty 
and  God  ever  undertaken  by  any  body  of  men.  It  was  at  once  an 
assertion  of  the  cause  of  the  people  against  hnman  autocrats,  and  of 
God,  the  King  of  king,  against  what  Thomas  Paiue  has  styled  the 
"  little  paltry  dignity  of  earthly  kings." 

It  was  further  in  its  high  aims  and  principles,  in  many  respects  at 
least,  the  antetype  of  the  American  republican  independence.  It 
differed  from  it  only  in  this  respect,  that  Judas's  movement  was  in- 
effective, issuing  in  disaster  then  and  ending,  in  the  later  revolution 
which  it  had  spiritually  and  organically  engendered,  in  the  ruin  of  the 
whole  Jewish  State.  But  the  American  war  of  independence  led  to 
a  signal  conquest  over  tyranny  and  the  brilliant  achievement  of 
liberty. 

The  one  failed  of  bringing  on  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  earth, 
the  dominion  of  pure  religion,  law,  and  justice  administered  by  the 
people's  own  representatives,  without  interference  by  domestic  or  for- 
eign potentates. 

The  other  brought  in  its  train  the  reign  of  the  Messiah — the  union 
of  the  American  republic  upon  the  foundation  of  freedom  and  equality. 
Under  the  guidance  of  this  Messiah,  impersonal,  yet  all-sufficient  for 
the  happiness  of  men,  the  American  nation  has  since  that  memorable 
struggle  for  independence  continued  to  proclaim  to  the  whole  world 
the  "  everlasting  creed  of  liberty." 

Of  this  nation  we,  the  Jews,  feel  proud  to  be  members.  To  it 
we  are  bound  by  the  sacred  ties  of  love  of  country  and  unshaken  de- 
votion. In  this  "  promised  land  that  flows  with  Freedom's  honey  and 
milk,"  we  have  our  safe  refuge,  feeling  ourselves  exiles  no  more,  nor 
yearning  in  the  least  degree  toward  a  repatriation  to  the  land  of  Israel 
of  old.  In  it  we  will  continually  strive,  in  common  with  all  the  other 
citizens  of  different  extractions  and  creeds,  to  enhance  its  welfare  and 
help  forwarding  all  peaceful  arts,  higher  culture,  generous,  mutual 
sentiments,  and  true  religion. 


ETHICS. 


1 


THE  ETHICS  OF  JUDAISM. 

Bv  KABBI  I.  M.  WISE. 


What  Aristotle  called  Ethics,  Cicero  called  Morals.  The  two 
terms  are  synonymous  also  with  Moral  Philosophy,  in  re,  different  in 
method  only.  Any  one  of  these  three  terms  designates  the  science  of 
man's  free  will,  motives,  volitions  and  actions,  rights  and  duties,  in  his 
rohitions  to  man  and  accountability  toward  God.  Man's  duties  to 
God,  being  of  a  religious  nature,  belong  properly  to  Tiieology. 

The  principle  of  ethics  is  in  human  nature.  Every  self-conscious 
human  being  feels  and  knows  that  the  Good  and  the  Right,  the  True 
and  the  Beautiful,  are  desirable  and  ought  to  be  chosen,  and  the  nega- 
tives thereof  are  objectionable  and  ought  to  be  shunned.  We  call 
this  conscience,  an  innate  and  unconscious  judgment,  which  distin- 
guishes man  as  such. 

The  jNIoral  Law,  the  Categoric  Imperative,  mustnecessarily  be  in 
num,  No  moral  laws,  no  ethics  of  any  kind,  could  possibly  be  evolved 
or  developed  in  the  human  race  if  the  moral  capacity  was  not  there 
originally. 

Evolution  or  Development  signifies  the  production  of  a  succession  of 
facts,  phenomena,  or  things  similar  to  their  fundamental  element.  None 
can  evolve  gold  from  iron  or  rocks  from  clouds.  Experience  and  edu- 
cation can  only  develop  that  which  is  elemental  in  man ;  it  can  but 
evolve  qualities  from  capacities,  and  render  them  constant  in  conscious- 
ness and  character.  So  the  unconscious  and  innate  conscience  may 
evolve  virtue,  which  is  the  flower  of  the  plant. 

What  is  good  and  right?  What  is  true  and  beautiful?  These  are 
problems  of  quiddity  which  experience  and  judgment  define,  and 
have  defined  differently  in  different  generations,  nations,  climates, 
natural  or  artificial  environs  which  differently  afl^ected  the  experience 
and  judgment  of  the  original  reasoner,  who  established  in  any  particu- 
lar case  this  or  that  definition  of  the  good  and  right,  the  true  and 
beautiful.  The  difference  between  Ethics  and  ^Esthetics  is  formal 
only. 

Therefore,  the  Moral  Law  is  one  in  the  whole  family  of  man,  the 
moral  laws  are  multifarious,  not  seldom  contradictory,  unstal)le,  and 

(1)'.)) 


100  ETHICS. 

unjust.  Slave  liolding  nations  consider  slavery  perfectly  moral ;  we 
do  not.  Despotism  is  considered  moral  in  despotic  countries  ;  we  con- 
sider it  immoral.  Slaying  dumb  animals  is  a  moral  sport  to  habitual 
hunters,  and  a  barbarous  crime  to  sensible  people,  who  would  punish 
their  boys  for  destroying  a  bird's  nest  or  maltreating  a  cat.  It  is  right 
to  slay  many  innocent  men  on  the  battle-field  of  contesting  nations 
and  a  capital  crime  to  slay  one.  Every  act  which  the  Decalogue  pro- 
hibits was  considered  just  and  right  somewhere  and  at  some  time,  and 
it  is  partly  the  case  to-day,  even  outside  of  the  homes  of  the  savages 
and  semi-barbarians.  Auto  dafes,  torture,  and  pyre  applied  to  punish 
heretics,  was  for  many  centuries  considered  right,  perfectly  moral ; 
ostracizing,  persecuting,  and  expatriating  persons  under  the  same  plea, 
is  considered  right  and  moral  in  certain  regions  of  civilized  society ; 
and  we  condemn  both  practices  as>unjust  and  immoral. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  history  offers  no  fixed  code  of  moral 
laws,  and  can  produce  no  canon  and  guide  to  all,  either  by  speculation 
or  evolution.  The  conscientious  individual  could  be  guided  only  by 
the  maxim  of  his  own  judgment,  viz.,  that  which  I  to  the  best  of  my 
knowledge  consider  to  be  right,  good,  and  true,  is  moral  to  do,  and. 
the  negative  thereof  is  moral  to  shun.  No  man  can  be  better  than  he 
knows  how  to  be.  But  it  is  insufficient  in  two  directions:  1.  No 
man  can  stand  still  to  consider  at  every  problem  in  practical  life, 
whether  to  do  or  not  to  do  is  moral  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge. 
2.  Any  deed,  action,  or  volition,  to  be  moral,  must  also  be  beneficial, 
or  at  least  not  injurious  to  society,  of  which  every  person  is  a  mere  in- 
dividual. That  only  is  good  which  is  good  for  all  the  good,  only 
that  is  right  which  is  right  to  all  the  righteous,  as  only  that  is  true 
which  is  true  universally.  No  man  can  stand  still  to  consider  at 
every  problem  in  practical  life,  whether  to  do  or  not  to  do  so  is  beneficial 
or  injurious  to  society ;  few  possess  the  ability  so  to  do. 

Therefi)re,  philosophers  like  Baruch  Spinoza  and  his  numerous 
followers,  denying  moral  freedom  to  man,  advanced  the  moral  maxim 
of  authority.  They  maintain  it  is  moral  to  do  or  to  shun  that  which 
the  existing  authority,  the  highest  power,  commands  or  forbids  to  be 
done  or  shunned.  Obedience  is  the  highest  virtue ;  it  is  Stoic  sub- 
mission to  the  inevitable.  If  such  submission  is  sinful  according  to 
the  inherent  Moral  Law,  the  individual  is  not  accountable  for  it;  it  is 
the  sin  of  that  authority  or  that  highest  powe?*. 

This  maxim,  which,  indeed,  is  the  underlying  principle  of  all 
despotic  governments  of  state,  society,  military,  and  semi-martial  or- 
ganizations, is  factual,  but  not  ethical,  because  it  is  not  from  man's 
free  will,  volition,  and  action.     It  makes  a  virtue  of  necessity,  and 


'illE    ETHICS    OF   JUDAISM.  101 

necessity  is  no  virtue.  Moral  laws  can  be  advisory  only;  if  they  be- 
come a  compulsory  necessity,  they  are  moral  laws  no  htnger. 

Still,  moral  laws,  which  are  the  definitions  of  the  true  and  the 
good  in  general  and  in  particular  cases,  being  necessary  to  man  for  the 
sake  of  certitude,  must  come  from  a  higher  or  highest  authority,  and 
can  be  advisory  only.  This  is  the  case  with  tlie  P^thics  of  Judaism,  as 
laid  down  in  the  Five  Books  of  Moses,  expounded  by  prophets  and 
sages  these  three  thousand  years,  and  actualized  completely  or  partly 
in  the  history  of  civilization.     Let  us  consider  this  system  of  ethics. 

I.       THE    MORAL    LAW    IN    MAN. 

The  Book  of  Genesis  is  teleological.  It  contains  besides  other 
doctrines  the  narrative  of  the  successive  development  of  the  God-idea 
in  man — natural  revelation — from  the  elementary  conceptions  of  the 
first  self-conscious  man  to  that  God-cognition  in  the  fourth  generation 
of  the  family  of  Abraham  ;  and  the  progress  of  the  ethical  doctrine 
developed  and  cultivated  in  man  by  this  progressive  God-cognition,  as 
finally  actualized  in  the  life  of  Joseph,  in  which  the  moral  imper- 
fections of  the  j)rior  patriarchs  disappear.  In  this  book,  at  the  very 
start  of  man's  history,  we  find  the  Moral  Law  in  num. 

In  Genesis  i,  27,  it  is  stated  that  God  created  Adam  in  his  image, 
as  explained  in  ii,  7,  by  permeating  the  body  of  clay  with  the  breath 
of  life,  which  made  that  body  a  living  person,  a  physical  body  en- 
livened with  a  God-like  spirit,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding 
the  intellectual  capacities  (Exodus  xxxi,  3  ;  Isaiah  xi,  2).  Then 
(verse  28)  we  are  informed  :  "And  God  blessed  them  (the  male  and 
female  alike)  and  God  said  to  them,  Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  fill 
the  earth,  and  subdue  it,  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
the  fowl  of  lieaven,  and  over  all  that  creepeth  upon  tlie  earth.'"  The 
same  blessing  is  repeated  (Genesis  ix)  as  bestowed  on  Noah  and  his 
sons  as  conditions  of  the  covenant  of  God  with  maidviiid. 

Blessing  in  Hebrew,  /)a?-ac/i,  signifies  "bestowing  of  some  addi- 
tional good"  (H^ID  nSDin,)  ;  in  this  case  it  signifies,  after  the 
Creator  had  bestowed  upon  man  the  breath  of  life,  the  God-like  spirit, 
he  bestowed  on  him  additionally  the  Moral  Law  as  a  part  of  his  nature  ; 
for  these  words  of  blessing  contain  the  main  elements  of  all  moral  laws 
in  the  following  order: 

1.  The  preservation  of  the  human  family  by  self-preser- 
vation   AND    preservation    OF    THE    RACE     IS    THE    FUNDAMENTAL 

MAXIM  OF  ALL  MORAL  LAWS.  Also,  according  to  the  Talmud,  this  is 
the  first  divine  commandment  given  to  man,  and  this  is  not  com- 
manded ;  it  is  bestowed  on  human  nature  as  a  blessing.     It  obligates 


102  ETHICS. 

him  by  his  own  uiitiire  to  perform  all  the  duties  Avhich  teud  toward  tiie 
preservation  of  the  race,  the  preservation  and  protection  of  life,  limbs, 
and  health,  together  with  the  means  and  conditions  of  sustenance,  and 
forbids  him  to  do  the  contrary  thereof,  as  is  evident  from  the  addi- 
tions to  this  blessing  in  Genesis  ix.  Here  is  the  broad  basis  of  all 
moral  laws  upon  which  state  and  society  primarily  rest,  expressed  in 
numerous  commandments  in  the  Mosaic  legislation,  and  in  the  leiris- 
lation  of  all  other  civilized  nations  more  or  less  perfect  up  to  the 
climax  of  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  stranger  as  thyself,"  "Thou  shalt  not  return  the  fugitive  slave  to 
his  master,"  all  of  which,  the  whole  category  of  commandments,  in- 
cluding the  laws  concerning  alms,  support  of  the  poor  and  needy,  and 
protection  to  the  weak  and  helpless,  have  this  one  aim,  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  human  family,  and  rest  upon  the  broad  basis  of  man's  in- 
nate Moral  Law. 

If  we  take  into  consideration  the  feebleness  and  long  helplessness 
of  the  human  cliild,  the  feebleness  and  helplessness  of  man  in  his 
primeval  condition,  opposite  not  only  the  powerful  quadrupeds,  but 
also  the  lower  animals  from  the  serpent  down  to  the  venomous  insects, 
and  add  to  it  the  j^eculiar  difficulty  of  man  to  secure  a  livelihood  and 
protection  against  the  inclemency  of  the  elements;  it  must  appear 
miraculous  that  the  iuiman  family  still  exists  and  has  increased  to 
over  fourteen  hundred  millions  of  individuals,  when  so  many  of  the 
much  stronger  races  are  extinct  and  many  more  nearly  extinct.  The 
words  of  the  divine  blessing  solve  this  mystery  by  pointing  out  the 
means  and  methods  for  the  preservation  of  the  human  family,  first  by 
the  term  ((IIl-'DDI)  "  Thou  shalt  or  wilt  subdue  the  earth"  to  yield 
sufficient  sustenance  for  all,  which  man  only  can  do.  The  earth  is 
subdued  by  labor  only,  thus  this  blessing  contains: 

2.  The  duty  of  labor  contained  in  the  innate  moral  law' 
OF  MAN.  As  it  is  every  person's  duty  to  contribute  his  share  to  the 
preservation  of  the  human  family,  it'could  be  no  less  his  duty  to  con- 
tribute his  part  for  the  production  oi'  the  means  of  its  sustenance. 
He  who  contributes  naught  to  the  household  consumes  the  bread  of 
others,  and  counts  in  the  minus  class  of  hunuinity.  This  also  is  out- 
lined in  Genesis  ix.  Labor  is  a  necessity  of  human  nature.  None 
besides  the  sick,  the  old,  and  feeble  can  live  hap[)ily  without  it. 

Here  then  is  the  broad  basis  in  the  innate  Moral  Law  to  a  category 
of  moral  laws  most  minutely  expounded  and  expanded  in  the  Mosaic 
legislation.  The  duty  of  labor  found  its  way  into  the  decalogue,  "  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy  work."  The  genius  of  the  Hebrew 
language  coined   the   term  Mahch  for  angel,  which    is   identical  with 


THE    ETHICS    OF   JUDAISM.  lOo 

Melachah  (work  or  labor),  so  that  angel  and  working  factor  are  identi- 
cal. Numerous  are  the  Mosaic  laws  for  the  protection  of  the  laborer 
and  the  fruits  of  his  labor  up  to  the  admonition,  "Thou  shalt  not 
keep  over  night  till  morning  the  wages  of  the  hired  man,  on  the  very 
day  thou  shalt  give  him  his  wages."  More  even  than  this  is  ordained 
in  Deuter.  xv,  when  the  person  sold  for  theft  is  set  free  before  the  year 
of  release,  "  Thou  shalt  not  let  him  go  away  empty  ;  thou  shalt  fur- 
nish him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock  and  out  of  thy  flour,  and  out  of  thy 
wine  press,  of  that  wherewith  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  blessed  thee  thou 
shalt  give  him."  This  is  more  than  wages.  As  to  the  social  position 
of  the  laborer,  the  Law  calls  him  invariably  "  thy  brother,"  and  knows 
generally  of  no  distinction  between  man  and  man.  All  work,  all  must 
work,  the  priest  at  the  altar,  the  Levite  at  music  and  song,  the  judge 
and  the  bailifl"  in  the  temple  of  justice,  the  teacher  and  the  author, 
the  musician  and  the  singer,  the  husbandman  and  his  lielp,  the  me- 
cliauic  and  the  wage  laborer,  all  must  work ;  the  Law  has  no  room  for 
idlers;  all  must  contribute  to  the  subsistence  and  progress  of  the 
human  family,  for  such  is  the  dictum  of  the  Moral  Law  in  man.  "  For 
not  upon  bread  alone  livetli  man,  but  upon  all  that  cometh  out  of  the 
month  of  the  Lord  man  liveth,"  as  we  shall  see  next.  This  accounts 
for  the  industrious  habits  of  the  Hebrews  iu  all  parts  of  their  history. 

The  next  term  of  divine  blessing  is  "ITIT  "  thou  slialtor  wilt  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  the  fowl  of  heaven  and  the  creep- 
ing things  upon  the  earth,"  viz.,  also  those  living  beings  which  ap- 
parently are  beyond  the  control  of  man.  So  the  human  race  will  not 
be  exterminated  by  the  animals  superior  to  it  in  strength  and  com- 
bativeness.  ]Man  exercises  his  authority,  maintains  his  dominion  over 
the  brute  creation  by  his  superior  intelligence  only  and  exclusively 
and  in  exact  ratio  to  the  height  or  lowness  of  ins  intelligence.  Thus 
his  blessing  contains: 

o.  The  duty  of  mental  culture  contained  in  the  innate 
MORAL  LAW  OF  MAN.  It  is  not  labor  alone,  it  is  intelligent  labor  which 
subdues  the  earth,  arrests  the  fury  of  the  elements,  and  renders  forces 
of  nature  subservient  to  man's  purposes.  It  is  not  physical  strength, 
it  is  the  power  of  intelligence  which  holds  dominion  over  brute  crea- 
tion. Therefore  like  labor  the  mental  culture,  the  growth  and  progress 
of  intelligence,  is  every  man's  duty  as  his  contribution  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  human  race.  It  is  by  the  ideality  and  inventive  genius 
peculiar  to  man;  that  education  and  progress  of  the  race  are  possible, 
nd  these  rise  or  decliue  with  the  progress  or  retrogression  of  mental 
culture.     So  his  inherent  Categorle  Imperative  urges  to  mental  culture  as 


104  ETHICS. 

it  drives  him  to  labor.     AVithout  mental  culture  as  without  labor  oue 
belongs  to  the  viinus  class  of  the  race. 

Here  we  have  with  the  broad  basis  in  the  innate  Moral  Law 
another  category  of  moral  laws  most  minutely  expanded  and  expounded 
in  the  Mosaic  legislation,  the  only  legislation  of  antiquity  which  urges 
the  education  of  the  young  as  a  solemn  duty  (Exodus  xiii,  14 ;  Deuter. 
vi,  7),  and  makes  it  every  one's  duty  to  learn  to  read  and  to  write,  not 
exempting  even  the  king  and  the  priest — the  only  legislation  of  an- 
tiquity which  made  wisdom  and  intelligence  the  ideal  of  the  nation, 
as  Moses  verily  told  them  :  "And  ye  shall  observe  and  do  them  (these 
laws),  for  this  is  your  wisdom  and  your  understanding  in  the  eyes  of 
the  peoples,  who  will  hear  all  these  statutes,  and  they  will  say  only 
this  great  nation  is  a  wise  and  intelligent  people  "  (Deut.  iv,  6).  It 
has  been  advanced  by  wise  expounders  of  the  Law,  that  Moses  de- 
nounced all  pagan  practices,  all  idolatry,  all  superstition  of  any  kind, 
so  rigorously,  not  so  much  to  the  greater  glory  of  God,  but  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  mental  culture,  because  those  superstitions  and  practices 
corrupt  and  cripple  human  reason,  and  retard  its  progressive  develop- 
ment; and  that  his  rigid  spirituality  in  his  presentation  of  the  mono- 
theism which  phantasy  can  not  depict  and  reason  can  not  define,  was 
specially  calculated  to  set  his  people  to  think,  to  reason  on  the  highest 
ideal,  to  stretch  the  reasoning  power  to  the  unlimited  universal,  thus 
training  and  urging  the  reasoning  faculty  to  dive  into  the  fathomless 
deep  of  universal  reason  and  redeem  it  from  the  bondage  of  narrow 
superstitions  and  crippling  fetichism  ;  to  advance  mental  culture  as  the 
path  to  the  snmmum  homim.  This  accounts  for  the  liberal  reason  of 
the  Hebrews  in  all  parts  of  their  history,  in  the  literature  of  their 
prophets,  their  sacred  bards,  their  rabbinical,  philosophical  and  poet- 
ical sages  in  all  ages,  and  the  rationalistic  Psyche  of  the  entire  people 
although  profoundly  religious. 

•This  triangle,  whose  sides  are  the  preservation  of  the  human  fam- 
ily, the  duty  of  labor  and  the  duty  of  mental  culture,  with  the  center 
of  the  innate  moral  law,  comprises  the  whole  system  of  ethics.  With 
the  growth  of  the  God-cognition  in  Israel  its  provisions  became  more 
definite  and  more  intensified,  but  no  new  principle  was  added.  The 
moral  attributes  of  God  were  revealed  to  the  people,  such  as  holiness, 
love,  mercy,  grace,  loving  kindness,  benevolence,  benefaction,  long 
suffering,  justice,  equity,  forgiveness  of  sin,  iniquity  and  transgression, 
preservation  of  the  good  and  the  true  to  the  thousandth  generation, 
and  neutralizing  the  effects  of  evil  doing  in  the  third  or  fourth  gen- 
eration— not  indeed  to  advance  a  new  principle  of  ethics,  but  to  fur- 


THE    ETHICS    OF    JUDAISM.  105 

nish  man  with  the  highest  ideal  of  all  ethics,  the  ideal  of  perfection, 
and  to  connect  therewith  : 

4.  The  duty  of  man  to  strive  continually  to  become  god- 
like, TO  come  as  near  as  possible  to  the  highest  ideal  of  disin- 
terested GOODNESS,  LOVE,  MERCY,  JUSTICE,  HOLINESS,  AND  ALL  THE 
OTHER  VIRTUES  WHICH  THE  INNATE  MORAL  LAW  URGES  AND  OUR  GOD- 
COGNITION  DEFINES.  This  is  expressed  in  the  connr.andnient  given  to 
Abraham,  "  Walk  (conduct thyself)  before  meand  become  tlion  ])orfect" 
(Genesis  xvii)  ;  in  the  admonition  of  Moses,  "  Thou  shalt  become  jierfect 
Avith  the  Lord  thy  God  "  (Deuter.  xviii,  13)  ;  and  according  to  the 
Rabbinical  sages,  also  in  the  words,  "Ye  shall  walk  after  the  Lord 
your  God  "  (Deuter.  xiii,  5)  ;  to  which  we  might  add  the  injunction, 
"  Take  heed  and  hearken  to  all  these  words  which  I  command  ihee  ; 
that  it  may  be  well  with  thee  and  thy  children  after  thee  forever,  if 
thou  wilt  do  the  <:ood  and  the  right  in  the  eves  of  the  Lord  thv  God  " 
(Deut.  xii,  28) — if  thou  strivest  to  do  as  God  does,  and  to  be  as  He  is, 
holiness  and  goodness  for  the  sake  of  Iwjliness  and  goodness. 

II.       THE   MAXIM    TO    REGULATE   THE   ACTION. 

The  maxim  to  regulate  the  doings  of  man  must  also  be  in  the 
innate  Moral  Law.  This  is  evident  from  the  whole  tenor  of  the  Mo- 
saic legislation,  which  is  based  upon  Freedom.  God,  according  to 
Mosaic  revelations,  is  ab-solutely  free.  Recreated  heaven  and  earth 
from  His  own  free  will.  He  preserves  and  governs  them  by  the  forces 
of  His  free  will,  which  He  can  suspend  or  change  at  His  will.  He 
made  man  a  free  being,  that  can  choose  good  or  evil  as  did  the  first 
human  parents,  and  as  Moses  often  announces  in  unmistakable  words 
(Deut.-xi,  26-28;  xxx,  15-20).  The  very  fact  that  reward  is  prom- 
ised for  the  observation  and  punishment  threatened  for  transgression 
in  all  parts  of  the  Thorah  shows  that  man  is  free  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Mosaic  legislation.  This  is  most  unequivocally  expressed  in  Deut- 
eronomy V,  25.  26.  The  nation  which  God  constituted  is  free.  Its 
form  of  government  is  the  theocracy,  not  a  theocracy  with  a  reigning 
priesthood,  but  with  a  reigning  law,  a  most  outspoken  free  democracy. 
God  is  the  king,  which  means  His  law  and  His  truth  reign  by  a  coun- 
cil of  elders  and  the  heads  of  the  tribes  chosen  by  them.  Freedom  is 
the  underlying  principle  every-where,  in  God,  state,  and  individual, 
hence  there  must  be  moral  freedom  limited  only  by  the  dicta  of  rea- 
son. This  accounts  for  the  spirit  of  freedom  which  never  and  no- 
where left  the  Hebrews. 

If  freedom  is  the  principle,  it  must  be  certain  that  man  possesses 
it  also  in  his  moral  life,  in  his  innate  Moral  Law.  Therefore  any  per- 
son who  conscientiously  regulates  his  volitions  and  actions  to  the  best 


106  ETHICS. 

of  liis  knowledge  in  obedience  to  the  Moral  Law  in  liini  is  a  righteous 
man,  however  different  his  doings  may  be  from  those  ordained  in  the 
Law  of  Moses.     He  is  one  of  the  class  whom  the  Rabbis  of  old  called 

D/lj^'n  mtDlJ^  ^I^DH,  "  the  pious  conscientious  non-Israelite,  whose 
reward  in  life  eternal  is  secured  to  him — something  which  all  gentile 
creeds  refuse  to  admit.  The  blessing  of  the  Lord  which  contains  the 
Moral  Law  was  not  bestowed  upon  Israel  only  or  any  other  nation  es- 
pecially;  it  was  not  -conditioned  by  any  creed,  faith,  law,  or  institu- 
tion ;  it  was  unconditionally  bestowed  on  man,  on  Adam  and  Noah 
prior  to  and  independent  of  all  creeds,  faiths,  laws,  or  institutions;  it 
is  the  heritage  of  the  entire  hun)an  family,  the  peculiar  treasure  of 
every  human  being  who  expounds  the  innate  Moral  Law  to  the  best 
of  his  knowledge,  and  thus  conscientiously  regulates  his  volitions,  mo- 
tives, and  actions.  Therefore  the  prophet  said  :  "  He  hath  told  thee 
O  man  what  is  good,"  and  not  0  Israelite,  0  Greek,  or  0  Roman. 
To  all  of  which  the  triangle  of  duty  is  an  infiillible  guide. 

III.       THE    ADVISORY    AUTHORITY    FOR   THE   SAKE    OF    CERTITUDE. 

The  Thorah  was  given  to  Israel  for  the  sake  of  certitude.  It  de- 
fines with  precision  what  is  good  and  right,  true  and  beautiful  in  all 
cases  (^f  human  affairs,  national,  sc^cial,  and  individual.  It  reveals  to 
man  the  ideal  of  moral  perfection  and  prompts  him  to  rise  in  the  moral 
scale  toward  this  ideal  with  the  conviction  that  it  is  the  Eternal  God 
who  is  so,  does  so,  and  teaches  us  so  to  do.  It  was  given  to  all  con- 
scientious men  for  their  satisfaction,  that  they  might  know  with  certi- 
tude what  is  good  and  right,  true  and  beautiful  to  be  chosen,  and  what 
being  the  contrary  thereof  is  to  be  shunned,  "  What  the  Lord  thy 
God  requireth  of  thee."  Still  it  is  advisory  only,  there  is  no  coercion, 
there  can  be  none,  for  this  same  Thorah  teaches  the  principle  of  free- 
dom and  the  duty  of  reason  and  reasoning.  The  same  Thorali  teaches 
that  the  moral  value  of  any  performance  is  commensurate  with  its 
motive.  Coercion  is  an  imposition,  no  iiiuei  motive  at  all,  certainly 
no  virtue,  whatever  action  it  produces  is  morally  indifferent.  The 
laws  of  the  Thorah  arc  definitions  of  the  ([iiiddity  of  the  good  an<l  the 
right,  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  and  also  the  contrarv  thereof.  The 
Israelite  is  expected  to  know  ihrm,  and  thcv  are  to  him  the  definitions 
coming  from  the  highest  authority.  If  he  is  conscientious  in  interpret- 
ing to  himself  the  innate  Moi'al  Law  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge,  he 
must  be  guided  l\v  the  Thorah  which  is  the  best  of  his  knowledge  in 
moral  matters.      11   he  fail>  to  do  so,  he  fails. 

This  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  is  a  true  synopsis  of  the  Ethics 
of  Judaism,  higher  than  which  I  know  of  none. 


Ernies    OF    THE    TALMUD.  107 


ETHICS  OF  THE  TALMUD. 

By  dr.  M.  MIELZINEH. 


Ethics  is  tiie  flower  and  fruit  on  the  tree  of  religion.  The  ulti- 
mate aim  of  religion  is  to  ennoble  man's  inner  life  and  outer  life,  so 
that  he  may  love  and  do  that  only  which  is  right  and  good.  This  is  a 
biblical  teaching  which  is  emphatically  repeated  in  almost  every  book 
of  Sacred  Scriptures.  Let  me  only  remind  you  of  the  sublime  word 
of  the  prophet  Micah :  "He  hath  showed  thee,  0  man,  what  is  good, 
and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justice  and  love 
kindness  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God"  (Micah  vi,  S). 

As  far  as  concerns  the  Bible,  its  ethical  teachings  are  generally 
known.  Translated  into  all  languages  of  the  world,  that  holy  book  is 
accessible  to  every  one,  and  whoever  reads  it  with  open  eyes  and  with 
an  unbiased  mind  will  admit  that  it  teaches  the  highest  principles  of 
morality,  principles  which  have  not  been  surpassed  and  superseded  by 
any  ethical  system  of  ancient  or  modern  philosophy. 

But  how  about  the  Talmud,  that  immense  literary  work  whose 
authority  was  long  esteemed  second  to  that  of  the  Bible?  What  are 
the  ethical  teachings  of  the  Talmud  ? 

Although  mainly  engaged  with  discussions  of  the  Law,  the  civil 
and  ritual  Law,  as  developed  on  the  basis  of  the  Bible  during  Israel's 
second  Commonwealth  down  to  the  sixth  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
the  Talmud  devotes  also  much  attention  to  ethical  subjects.  Not  only 
is  one  treatise  of  the  Mishna  (The  Pirke  Aboth)  almost  exclusively 
occupied  with  ethical  teachings,  but  such  teachings  are  also  very  abun- 
dantly contained  in  the  Agadic  (homiletical)  passages  which  are  so 
frequently  interspersed  in  the  legal  discussions  throughout  all  parts  of 
the  Talmud. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Talmudical  literatui-e  embraces 
a  period  of  about  eight  centuries,  and  that  the  numerous  teachers 
whose  ethical  views  and  utterances  are  recorded  in  that  vast  literature 
rank  differently  in  regard  to  mind  and  authority.  At  the  side  of  the 
great  luminaries,  we  rind  also  lesser  oues.  At  the  side  of  utterances 
of  great,  clear-sighted  and  broad-minded   masters  with  lofty  ideas,  we 


108  ETHICS. 

meet  also  witli  utterances  of  peculiar  views  which  never  obtained 
authority.  Not  every  ethical  remark  or  opinion  quoted  in  that  litera- 
ture can,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  an  index  of  the  standard  of  Tal- 
raudical  ethics,  but  such  opinions  only  can  be  so  regarded  which  are 
expressed  with  authority  and  which  are  in  harmony  with  the  general 
spirit  that  pervades  the  Talmudic  literature. 

Another  point  to  be  observed  is  the  circumstance  that  the  Talmud 
does  not  treat  of  ethics  in  a  coherent,  philosophical  system.  The  Tal- 
mudic sages  made  no  claim  of  being  philosophers ;  they  were  public 
teachers,  expounders  of  the  Law,  popular  lecturers.  As  such,  they  did 
not  care  for  a  methodically  arranged  system.  All  they  wanted  was  to 
spread  among  the  people  ethical  teachings  in  single,  concise,  pithy, 
pointed  sentences,  well  adapted  to  impress  the  minds  and  hearts,  or  in 
parables  or  legends  illustrating  certain  moral  duties  and  virtues.  And 
this,  their  method,  fully  answ^ered  its  purpose.  Their  ethical  teach- 
ings did  actually  reach  the  Jewish  masses,  and  influenced  their  con- 
duct of  life,  while  among  the  Greeks,  the  ethical  theories  and  systems 
remained  to  be  a  matter  that  concerned  the  philosophers  only,  without 
exercising  any  educating  influence  upon  the  masses  at  large. 

Furthermore,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Talmudical  ethics 
is  largely  based  on  the  ethics  of  the  Bible.  The  sacred  treasure  of 
biblical  truth  and  wisdom  was  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  rabbis. 
This  treasury  they  tried  to  enrich  by  their  own  wisdom  and  observa- 
tion. Here  they  develop  a  principle  contained  in  a  scriptural  passage, 
and  give  it  a  wider  scope  and  a  larger  application  to  life's  various  con- 
ditions. There  they  crystallize  great  moral  ideas  into  a  pithy,  impressive 
maxim  as  guide  for  human  conduct.  Here  thev  ffive  to  a  jewel  of  bib- 
Heal  ethics  a  new  luster  by  setting  it  in  the  gold  of  their  own  wisdom. 
There  again  they  combine  single  peai'ls  of  biblical  wisdom  to  a  grace- 
ful ornament  for  human  life. 

Let  us  now  try  to  give  a  few  outlines  of  the  ethical  teachings  of 
the  Talmud.  In  the  first  place,  teachings  concerning  man  as  a  moral 
being : 

In  accordance  with  the  teaching  of  the  Bible,  the  rabbis  duly  em- 
l)hasize  man's  rlignity  as  a  being  created  in  the  likeness  of  God.'  By 
this  likeness  of  God  they  understand  the  spiritual  being  within  us,  that 
is  endowed  with  intellectual  and  moral  capacities.  The  higher  desires 
and  inspirations  which  spring  from  this  spiritual  being  in  man,  are 
called  Yetzer  toh,  the  good  inclination  ;  but  the  lower  appetites  and  de- 
sires which   rise  from   our  physical   nature,  and  which  we  share  with 

'  Aboth.  Ill,  14. 


ETHICS    OF    THE    TALMUD.  109 

the  aninia]  creation,  are  termed  Yefzer  ha-ra,  the  inclination  to  evil.^ 
Not  that  these  sensuous  desires  are  absolutely  evil  ;  for  they,  too,  have 
been  implanted  in  man  for  a'ood.  purposes.  Without  them  man  could 
not  exist;  he  would  not  cultivate  and  populate  this  earlh."  Evil  are 
those  lower  desires  only  in  that  they,  if  unrestrained,  easily  mislead 
man  to  live  contrary  to  the  demands  and  aspirations  of  his  divine  nat- 
ure. Hence  the  constant  strus-gle  in  man  between  the  two  inclina- 
tions.''. He  who  submits  his  evil  inclination  to  the  control  of  his  liigher 
aims  and  desires,  is  virtuous  and  rigliteous.  "  The  righteous  have 
their  desires  in  their  power,  but  the  wicked  are  in  the  power  of  their 

d*  "4 

esires. 

Man's  free  idll  is  expressed  in  the  sentence  :  "  Every  thing  is  or- 
dained by  God's  providence,  but  freedom  of  choice  is  given  to  man."  ^ 
Tiie  ground  of  our  duty,  as  presented  to  us  by  Talmudical,  as  well  as 
biblical  teachings,  is,  that  it  is  the  will  of  God.  "  Do  his  will  as  thy 
own  will,  submit  thy  will  to  his  will."  " 

Although  happiness  here  and  hereafter  is  promised  as  reward  for 
fulfillment,  and  punishment  threatened  for  neglect  of  duty,  still  we  are 
reminded  not  to  be  guided  by  the  consideration  of  reward  and  punish- 
ment, but  rather  by  love  and  obedience  to  God,  and  by  love  to  that 
which  is  good  and  noble.  "  Be  not  like  servants,  who  serve  their  mas- 
ter for  the  sake  of  reward."  ' 

As  a  leading  rule  of  the  duties  of  self-preservation  and  self-cultiva- 
tion, and,  at  the  same  time,  as  a  warning  against  selfishness,  we  have 
Hillel's  sentence  :  "  If  I  do  not  care  for  myself,  who  will  do  it  for  me? 
and  if  I  care  only  for  myself,  what  am  I  ?"  ®  The  duty  of  acquiring 
knowledge,  especially  that  knowledge  which  gives  us  a  clearer  insight 
in  God's  will  to  man,  is  most  emphatically  enjoined  in  numerous  sen- 
tences: "  Without  knowledge  there  is  no  ti-ue  morality  and  piety."* 
"  The  more  knowledge,  the  more  spiritual  life." '"  But  we  are  also  re- 
minded that  "  the  ultimate  end  of  all  knowledge  and  wisdom  is  our 
inner  purification  and  the  performance  of  good  and  noble  deeds."  " 

Next  to  the  duty  of  acquiring  knowledge,  that  bi'  industrious  labor 
and  useftd  activity  is  strongly  enjoined.  It  is  well  known  that  among 
the  ancient  nations  in  general,  manual  labor  was  regarded  as  degrading 
the  free  citizen.  Even  the  greatest  philosophers  of  antiquity,  a  Plato 
and  Aristotle,  could  not  free  themselves  of  this  deprecating  view  of 

1  Berachoth,  (Ha  and  Midrash  Bereshith,  IX.        ^  Midrash,  ibid. 

^  Kiddushin,  oOb  ;   Berachoth,  5a. 

♦  Berachotb,  (Jlb;  :Mi(b-ash  Beresliith,  ch.  xxxiii.  ^  Abotli,  II,  15. 

« Ibid.,  II,  4.  '  Ibid.,  I,  3.  «  Aboth,  I,  14.  9  Ibid,  II,  5. 

1"  Ibid.,  11.  7.  "  Berachoth,  17a,  Aboth,  III,  17. 


110  ETHICS. 

labor.^  How  different  was  the  view  of  the  Talniudic  sages  iu  this  re- 
spect!  They  say  :  "  Love  labor,  and  hate  to  be  a  lord."''  "Great 
is  the  diguity  of  labor ;  it  honors  man." ''  "  Beautiful  is  the  iutellectual 
occupation,  if  combined  with  some  practical  work."*  "  He  who  does 
not  teach  his  son  a  handicraft  trade,  neglects  his  parental  duty."^ 

Regarding  man's  relation  to  his  fellow-men,  the  rabbis  consider  j».s- 
tice,  truthfxdneM,  peaceableness,  and  charity  as  cardinal  duties.  They  say, 
"the  world  (human  society)  rests  on  three  things — on  justice,  on 
truth,  and  on  peace."® 

The  principle  of  justice  in  the  moral  sense  is  expressed  in  the  fol- 
lowing rules:  "  Thy  neighbor's  property  must  be  as  sacred  to  thee  as 
thine  own."'  "  Thy  neighbor's  honor  must  be  as  dear  to  thee  as  thine 
own."®  Hereto  belongs  also  the  golden  rule  of  Hillel :  "Whatever 
would  be  hateful  to  thee,  do  not  to  thy  neighbor."  ^ 

The  sacred uess  of  truth  and  trutJifuhiess  is  expressed  in  the  sen- 
tence: "  Truth  is  the  signet  of  God,  the  Most  Holy."'"  "Let  thy 
yea  be  in  truth,  and  thy  nay  be  in  truth.""  Admonitions  concerning 
faithfulness  and  fidelity  to  given  promises  are:  "Promise  little  and 
do  much."''^  "To  be  faithless  to  a  given  promise  is  as  sinful  as 
idolatry."  '"*  "  To  break  a  verbal  engagement,  though  legally  not  bind- 
ing, is  a  moral  wrong."'*  Of  the  numerous  warnings  against  any 
kind  of  deceit,  the  following  may  be  mentioned  :  "  It  is  sinful  to  de- 
ceive any  man,  be  he  even  a  heathen."'"  "  Deception  in  words  is  as 
great  a  sin  as  deception  in  money  matters."  '" 

Peace  is  c(msidered  by  the  Talmudic  sages  as  the  first  c(nidition  of 
human  welfare  and  happiness,  or  as  they  express  it:  "Peace  is  the 
vessel  in  which  all  God's  blessings  are  presented  to  us  and  preserved 
by  us."  "  As  virtues  leading  to  peace,  those  of  mildness  and  meek- 
ness, of  gentleness  and  placidity,  are  highly  praised  and  recom- 
mended.'® 

The  last  of  the  principal  duties  to  our  fellow-men  is  charitii,  which 
begins  where  justice  leaves  off.  Prof.  Steinthal,  in  his  great  work  on 
General  Ethics,  remarks,  that  among  the  cardinal  virtues  of  the  ancient 
philosophers,  we  look  in  vain  for  the  idea  of  love  and  charity,  whereas, 
in  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  we  generally  find  the  idea  of  love,  mercy, 

'  Arist.     I'olit  viii,  3.    '  '■'  Aboth  i,  10.  ^  Gittin,  67a. 

*  Aboth  ii,  -'.  •'  Kiddushin,  29a.  «  Abotli  i,  IS. 

Mbid.  ii,  12.          »  Ibid,  ii,  10.  «  Sabbath,  30a.  «>  8ab])ath,  4.^)a. 

"  15.  Metzia,  45a.  ''^  Aboth  1,  15.  '■'  ISanliedrin,  {)2a. 

1*  B.  Metzia,  4,Sa.  '^  ChuUin,  04a.  '«  B.  Metzia,  58. 
"  Mishna  Oketzin  iii,  12. 

I"  Aboth  11,  10;   ill,  12;  v,  11  ;  Taanith,  20;  (Jlttin,  Oa. 


ETHICS    OF   THE   TALMUD.  Ill 

and  charity  closely  connected  with  that  of  justice.'  And  w^  may  add, 
as  in  the  Bible,  so  also  in  the  Talmud,  where  charity  is  considered  as 
the  highest  degree  on  the  scale  of  duties  and  virtues.  By  words  of 
charity  man  proves  to  be  a  true  image  of  God  wliose  attributes  are 
love,  kindness,  and  mercy."  "  He  who  turns  away  from  the  works  of 
love  and  charity,  turns  away  from  God."''  "The  works  of  charitv 
have  more  value  than  sacrifices;  they  are  equal  to  the  performance  of 
all  religious  duties."* 

Besides  these  principal  duties  in  relation  to  our  fellow-men  in  gen- 
eral, the  Talmud  treats  also  very  elaborately  of  duties  concerning  special 
relations,  as  the  conjugal  duties,  the  parental  and  filial  duties,  the 
duties  toward  the  old  and  aged,  toward  teachers  and  scholars,  toward 
the  community  and  the  country,  and  even  of  duties  in  regard  to  ani- 
mals. But  the  time  limited  for  this  paper  does  not  permit  us  to  enter 
into  details. 

To  these  short  outlines  of  Talmudical  ethics,  let  us  add  only  a 
few  general  remarks  :  Being  essentially  a  development  of  the  sublime 
ethical  principles  and  teachings  of  the  Bible,  the  Talmudical  ethics  re- 
tains the  general  characteristics  of  that  origin. 

It  teaches  nothing  that  is  against  human  nature,  notliiuu'  that  is 
incompatible  with  the  existence  and  welfare  of  human  society.  It  is 
free  from  the  exti-eme  excess  and  austerity  to  which  the  lofty  ideas  of 
religion  and  morality  were  carried  by  the  theories  and  practices  of  some 
sects  inside  and  outside  of  Judaism.  ^ 

Nay,  many  Talmudical  maxims  and  sayings  are  evidently  directed 
against  such  austerities  and  extravagances.  Thus  they  warn  against 
the  monastic  idea  of  obtaining  closer  communion  with  God  by  fleeing 
from  human  society  and  by  seclusion  from  temporal  concerns  of  life: 
"  Do  not  separate  thyself  from  society.""  "  Man's  thoughts  and  ways 
shall  always  be  in  contact  and  sympathy  with  his  fellow-men." "  "  No 
one  shall  depart  from  the  general  customs  and  manners."  '  "  Better  is 
he  who  lives  on  the  toil  of  his  hand  than  he  who  indulges  in  idle  piety."  '^ 

They  strongly  discountenance  the  idea  of  celibacy,  which  the  Es- 
seues,  and  later,  some  orders  of  the  Church  regarded  as  a  superior 
state  of  perfection.  The  rabbis  say  :  "  He  who  lives  without  a  wife 
is'no  perfect  man."^  "  To  be  unmarried  is  to  live  without  joy,  with- 
out blessing,  without  kindness,  without  religion,  and  without  peace.""* 

While,  on  the  one  hand,  they  warn  against  too  much  indulgence 

'  Steinthal,  AllegeniL'ine  Ethik,  p.  108.  ^  Sot:i,  14;i. 

■'  Kethuboth,  61a.  *  Succah,  49a  ;  B.  Bathra,  9a. 

5  Aboth  ii,  4.  «  Ketlmboth,  11a.  '  15.  INIetzia,  SHa. 

8  Berachoth,  8a.  »  Yebamoth,  63a.  '»  Ibid.  G2a. 


112  ETHICS. 

in  pleasures  and  in  the  gratification  of  bodily  appetites  and  against  the 
insatiable  pursuit  of  earthly  goods  and  riches,  as  well  as  against  the 
inordinate  desire  of  honor  and  power  ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  strongly 
disapprove  the  ascetic  mortification  of  the  body  and  abstinence  from 
enjoyment,  and  the  cynic  contempt  of  all  luxuries  that  beautify  life. 
They  say  :  "  God's  commandments  are  intended  to  enhance  the  value 
and  enjoyment  of  life,  but  not  to  mar  it  and  make  it  gloomy."'  "  If 
thou  hast  the  means,  enjoy  life's  innocent  pleasures."''  "He  who  de- 
nies himself  the  use  of  wine  is  a  sinner."  ' 

"No  one  is  permitted  to  afflict  himself  by  unnecessary  fasting."* 
"That  which  beautifies  life  and  gives  it  vigor  and  strength  and  even 
riches  and  honor  are  suitable  to  the  pious,  as  agreeable  to  the  world  at 
jarge."  ■' 

Finally,  one  more  remark  :  The  Talmud  has  often  been  accused 
of  being  illiberal,  as  if  teaching  its  duties  only  for  Jews  toward  fellow- 
believers,  but  not  also  toward  our  fellow-men  in  general.  This  charge  is 
entirely  unfounded.  It  is  trne,  and  quite  natural,  that  in  regard  to 
the  ritual  and  ceremonial  law  and  {)ractice,  a  distinction  between  Jew 
and  Gentile  was  made.  It  is  also  true  that  we  occasionally  meet  in 
the  Talmud  with  an  nnciiaritable  utterance  against  the  heathen  world. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  in  what  state  of  moral  corruption  and 
degradation  their  heathen  surroundings  were  at  that  time.  And  this, 
too,  must  be  remembered,  that  such  utterances  are  only  made  by  in- 
dividujils  who  gave  vent  to  their  indignation  in  view  of  the  cruel  per- 
secutions whose  victims  they  were.  As  regards  moral  teachings,  the 
Talmud  is  as  broad  as  humanity.  It  teaches  duties  of  man  to  man 
without  distinction  of  creed  and  race.  In  most  of  the  ethical  max- 
ims, the  terms  Adam  and  Beriyoth,  "  man,"  "  fellow-men,"  are  em- 
phatically used.  In  some  instances,  the  Talmud  expressly  reminds 
that  the  duties  of  justice,  veracity,  peacefulness,  and  charity  aie  to  be 
fulfilled  toward  the  heathen  as  well  as  to  the  Israelites." 

"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;"  this  is,  said  R. 
Akiba,  the  all  embracing  principle  of  the  divine  law.  Hut  Ben  Azai 
said,  there  is  another  passage  in  Scriptures  still  more  embracing  ;  it  is 
the  passage  (Gen.  v,  2)  :  "  This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of 
man  ;  in  the  day  that  God  ei-eated  man,  he  made  him  in  the  likeness 
of  God.""  That  sage  meant  to  say,  this  passage  is  more  embracing, 
since  it  clearly  tells  us  who  is  our  neighbor;  not  as  it  might  be  mis- 
understood, our  friend  only,  not  our  fellow-citizen  only,  not  our  co-re- 

'  Yoma,  8oa.  -  Knibiii,  r>4a.  '  Taanitli,  1  la.  Ml. id.  22b. 

5  Baraitha  Aboth,  8.  "  f.  i.  Gittin,  tila. 


ETHICS    OF    THE    TALMUD.  113 

ligionist  only,  but  since  we  all  descend  from  the  cotnnion  ancestor, 
since  all  are  created  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God,  every  man, 
every  human  being  is  our  brotlier,  our  neighbor  whom  we  shall  love 
as  ourselves. 

The  liberal  spirit  of  Talmudic  ethics  is  most  strikingly  evidenced 
in  the  sentence  :  "  The  pious  and  virtuous  of  all  nations  participate 
in  the  eternal  bliss,"  '  whicli  teaches  that  man's  salvation  depends  not 
on  the  acceptance  of  certain  articles  of  belief,  nor  on  certain  cere- 
monial observances,  but  on  that  which  is  the  ultimate  aim  of  religion, 
namely,  Morality,  purity  of  heart  and  holiness  of  life." 


bra  on  Lev.  xix,  IS. 
-' Tosephta  Sanhedrin,  ch.  xiii:    [Nlainionides  Yad  Hachazaka,  H.  Te- 
shuba  iii,  5;  H.  Melachim  viii,  11. 
8 


114  ETHICS. 


SYNAGOGUE  AiNl)  CHURCH  IN  THEIR  MUTUAL  RELA- 
TIONS, PARTICULARLY  IN  REFERENCE  TO  THE 
ETHICAL   TEACHINGS. 

By  dr.  K.  KOPILER. 


Among  the  wondrous  exhibits  of  this  World's  Exposition,  the 
Religious  Parliament  just  opened  justly  claims  the  greatest  attention, 
for  no  matter  what  it  may  actually  accomplish,  it  is  in  itself  the  token 
and  pledge  of  the  approaching  realization  of  the  glorious  dream  of 
Israel's  lofty  seers,  the  time  of  universal  brotherhood  of  men  and  of 
the  acknowledged  universal  Fatherliood  of  God. 

The  Executive  Board  of  this  Religious  Congress  have  manifested 
a  high  sense  of  justice  in  according  the  place  of  honor  to  the  ancient 
Synagogue,  the  Sons  of  Abraham,  who  since  the  dawn  of  history  have 
been  intrusted  with  tlie  charge  of  proclaiming  the  one  God  every-where 
in  order  to  be  a  blessing  to  all  nations  on  earth.  Not  only  as  mother 
of  the  Church,  but  as  holding  forth  this  great  promise  of  peace  to 
united  mankind,  the  Synagogue  stands  here  the  first  in  the  race. 
Well,  then,  speaking  on  behalf  of  the  Synagogue,  I  wish  to  bring  the 
message  of  ])eace  and  good  will,  the  sincere  offer  of  fellowship  to  all 
religious  bodies  represented,  but  especially  to  the  Christian  Church, 
flesh  of  our  flesh  and  s[)irit  of  our  spirit,  and  emphasize  the  fact,  too 
often  overlooked,  that  Synagogue  and  Church  represent  hut  the  differ- 
ent prismatic  hues  and  shades,  refractions  of  the  same  divine  light  of 
Truth,  the  opposite  })olar  currents  of  the  san)e  magnetic  power  of 
Love.  Working  in  different  directions  and  spheres.  Synagogue  and 
Church  supplement  and  complete  one  another  while  fulfilling  the 
great  providential  mission  of  building  up  the  kingdom  of  truth  and 
righteousness  on  earth. 

The  erroneous  impression  of  most  people,  learned  or  laymen,  is 
that  Judaism  is  identical  with  the  Old  Testament,  which  represents 
the  rigidity  and  harshness  of  the  law,  while  Christianity,  founded  on 
llie  New,  holds  forth  the  sweet  and  gentle  sway  of  love.  The  German 
schools  of  Hegel  and  Schleiermacher  went  so  far  even  as  to  set  it 
down  as  an  axiom,  that  whatever  is  liberal,  cheerful,  and  humane  in 
Christian   thought  and   culture,  is  due   to  the  genius  of  Hellas,  and 


SYNAGOGUE  AND  CHURCH.  115 

whatever  is  fanatirul  ami  austere  emanates  from  the  Semitic  or  Hebrew 
source. 

Semitism  against  Aryanism  was  the  watchword  of  David  Friedrich 
Strauss  and  Ferdinand  Christian  Bauer  before  young  Renan  found  the 
scientific  formula  which,  under  the  baneful  name  of  Anti-Semitism, 
has  done  such  great  harm  when  once  thrown  as  a  battle-cry  and  a  fire- 
brand among  the  masses.  Thank  Heaven,  historical  research  has  be- 
gun to  bridge  the  wide  gulf  and  to  realize  that  the  Synagogue  holds 
the  key  to  the  mysteries  of  the  Church.  For  after  all,  Jesus  and  his 
Apostles  were  both  in  their  life  and  teaching  Jews.  From  the  Jewish 
Synagogue  they  caught  the  holy  fire  of  inspiration  to  preach  the  com- 
ing of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  for  which  they  had  learned  to  pray, 
while  sending  up  their  daily  incense  of  devotion  to  the  "  Father  iu 
Heaven."  The  Synagogue  was  the  center  of  their  activity.  There 
they  went  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  to  offer  the  gospel  to  their  Jewish 
brethren,  and  from  there  to  enlist  the  attention  of  the  pagan  world 
around.  In  the  Synagogue  they  found  the  sick  and  sorrow-laden  in 
wait  of  their  work  of  relief  and  miraculous  cures.  From  times  im- 
memorial, every  Jewish  town  or  settlement  throughout  the  vast 
lioman,  Syriau,  and  Persian  empires  had  its  meeting-place  for  common 
worship  and  study  of  the  law,  and  last,  not  least,  for  the  support  of 
the  poor,  the  sick,  and  the  stranger,  yea,  a  feature  which  has  thus  far 
escaped  the  notice  of  writers,  also  for  the  reception,  instruction,  and 
protection  of  the  Jewish  Proselyte.  These  Synagogues,  called  by 
Philo  schools  of  wisdom  and  virtue,  prepared  and  plowed  the  soil  for 
Christianity  to  reap  the  harvest  with  the  large  means  and  forces  at  its 
command.  "I  was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me  meat;  I  was  thirsty  and 
ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  in,  naked  and  ye 
clothed  me  ;  I  was  sick  and  ye  visited  me  in  prison  ;  and  ye  came 
unto  me;  for  whatever  ye  did  to  the  least  of  my  brethren,  ye  did  it 
unto  me."  In  these  beautiful  words  of  the  Son  of  Man,  who  as  a 
Judge  of  the  nations  addresses  the  good  ones  in  the  future  Judgment, 
Jesus  refers  to  the  organized  charity  work  done  under  the  roof  of  the 
Synagogue  by  the  E?seue  brotherhocd,  and  the  idea  expressed  corre- 
sponds exactly  with  the  Talmudical  word  :  He  who  receives  a  stranger 
with  Abraham-like  hospitality,  receives  the  majesty  of  God,  the 
Shechina. 

The  entire  institution  of  the  Synagogue,  unlike  the  Temple  with 
its  priestly  sacrifice,  is  the  creation  of  the  Chasidim  and  Anavim, 
"the  pious"  and  "humble  ones,"  in  the  exile  who  first  poured  forth 
fervent  prayers  to  God  as  abinu  ("our  Fatlier"};  who  composed  the 
world's  matchless  treasury  of  inspiration,  comfort,  and  devotion,  the 


116  ETHICS. 

Psalms;  from  whose  circles  emanated  works  of  such  lofty  ethics  as  the 
books  of  Job  and  of  Jouah,  Tobit  'and  the  Testament  of  the  Twelve 
Patriarchs. 

It  is  a  pity  that  the  Essene  traditions  and  records  have  not  yet 
received  the  full  attention  they  deserve,  or  else  there  could  be  no 
longer  any  dispute  whether  the  claim  of  priority  for  the  Golden  Rule 
is  due  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  or  to  Hillel,  the  Jewish  master,  forty 
years  his  anterior.  Two  centuries  before  Hillel,  Philo,  and  Josephus, 
we  hear  already  the  maxim  inculcated  by  the  sons  of  Jacob,  the 
Twelve  Patriarchs  :  "  Love  God,  thy  maker,  with  all  thy  life,  and  love 
thy  neighbor  with  all  thy  heart.  Forgive  him  if  he  has  insulted  thee, 
and  if  he  plots  evil  against  thee,  pray  for  liim  and  do  him  acts  of 
kindness,  and  the  Lord  will  redeem  thee  from  all  evil."  Love  for 
God,  love  for  man,  and  love  for  virtue  and  fortitude  or  self-consecra- 
tion— these  were  the  three  rules  after  which  the  Essene  brotherhood 
fashioned  their  lives  while  striving  for  the  attainment  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  and  for  that  perfection  which  was  to  open  for  them  the  gates  of 
bliss  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  They  corresponded  with  the  trio 
of  virtues  given  in  Micha  vi,  8:  "Thou  hast  been  told,  O  man,  what 
is  good  and  what  the  Lord,  thy  God,  requires  of  thee:  To  do  Justice, 
love  Mercy,  and  walk  humbly  as  an  Essene  (zena')  with  thy  God,"  or 
with  the  three  virtues  singled  out  by  the  Psalmist :  "  Who  shall  as- 
cend the  hill  of  the  Lord  and  who  shall  stand  on  His  holy  ground  ? 
He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  and  lips  not  defiled  by 
profanity." 

How  remarkable,  then,  to  find  John  the  Baptist  as  he  stood  on 
the  shore  of  the  Jordan  to  invite  alUthe  sinnei'S  to  wash  off  their  sins 
in  the  river,  and  cleanse  their  souls  by  repentance,  in  preparation  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  that  was  near,  preaching,  according  to  Jo- 
sephus, the  same  three  rules  of  Essene  life :  Love  of  God,  love  of 
man,  or  righteousness,  and  love  of  virtue  or  fortitude  of  holiness. 

There  was  undoubtedly  the  power  of  a  great  originality  felt  when 
this  re-risen  Elijah  had  raised  the  cry  of  the  speedy  coming  of  the 
Messiah  while  hurling  his  bitter  execrations  against  the  hypocrites, 
those  Zebuim  or  chameleon-like  vipers  that  shine  in  all  colors  of  piety, 
relying  on  Abraham's  protection  at  the  gates  of  hell.  Jesus,  the 
young  Galilean,  was  seized  by  the  same  prophetic  impetus,  at  first 
using  almost  the  identical  words  of  his  foreiunner  or  master.  There 
was  no  reason  why  he  should  aJitagonize  the  teaching  of  the  synagogue 
any  more  than  John  the  Baptist  did.  Was  not  the  very  prayer,  the 
so-called  Lord's  prayer,  he  taught  his  disciples  according  to  Luke, 
prompted  by  a  similar  prayer  John  the  Baptist  had  taught  his  follow- 


SYNAGOGUE  AND  CHURCH.  117 

ers?  But  he  was  far  from  rejecting  the  ohl  morning  prayer  of  tlie 
svuairosue.  When  asked  what  he  took  to  be  the  foremost  command- 
ment,  he  began  like  any  Jew,  used  from  boyhood  up  to  begin  the  day 
with  the  benediction  for  the  light  and  the  law,  f  )llowed  by  the  SiiMA, 
with  that  ancient  watchword:  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord  our  God, 
the  Lord  is  one,  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart;"  and  then  he  declared  as  the  next  one :  "  Love  thy  neighbor 
like  thyself."  But  we  have  the  emphatic  declaration  from  his  own 
lips  :  "  Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  Law  or  the  Prophets,  I 
came  not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill,  for  verily  I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven 
and  earth  shall  puss  away,  one  iota  shall  in  nowise  pass  away  from  the 
Law  till  all  be  accomplished."  Never  was  the  so-called  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  intended  to  supplant  the  Law  of  Sinai,  as  the  gospel  of  Mat- 
thew would  have  it.  According  to  tiie  far  more  exact  report  of  Luke, 
it  was  the  solemn  consecration  of  the  disciples  to  their  great  task  of 
living  in  a  state  of  poverty,  privation,  and  contempt  while  going  forth 
to  preach  the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  was  the  Torath  or  Mishuath 
Chasidim,  a  code  of  ethics  not  intended  f  )r  the  many,  but  for  the  few 
elect,  for  those  forming  a  haly  congregation  within  the  Congregation 
of  Israel,  the  ideal  servant  of  God,  who  gives  his  back  to  the  smiter, 
only  eager  to  be  the  light,  and  the  lasting  covenant  of  salt  lo  hu- 
manity in  the  midst  of  decaying  earthly  life.  "  Tlie  lovers  of  God 
take  insult  and  contumely  and  resent  not,  knowing  that  when  they 
depart  this  earth  they  will  shine  like  the  sun  in  its  full  glory."  This 
is  the  Talmudie  version  of  the  same  Esseue  teachings  as  were  couched 
by  Jesus  in  the  well-known  words:  "  If  you  love  only  those  that  love 
you,  if  ye  only  reciprocate  kindness  and  love  when  you  are  sure  of  its 
return,  what  are  you  more  than  the  Amvte  Haaretz,  the  careless  and 
sinful  people  of  the  land  (not  Gentiles  as  the  Greek  writers  ])ut  it). 
"  You  Avho  desire  to  be  sons  of  the  Most  High  and  to  have  God  as 
Father  dwell  in  your  midst,  you  are  expected  to  love  your  enemies,  to 
do  good  to  those  that  hate  you,  to  bless  those  that  curse  you,  and  pray 
and  fast  for  those  that  insult  you.  Let  people  in  general,  the  men  of 
little  faith,  the  Ketane  Emunah,  be  anxious,  saying:  "  What  shall  we 
eat?  What  shall  we  drink?  Or  wherewithal  shall  we  be  clothed  ? 
As  for  you  who  ought  to  be  heroes  of  faith,  Baale  Emvnah,  who  read 
daily  the  chapter  of  the  manna,  the  bread  which  rained  daily  in  the 
wilderness  for  the  good  ond  for  the  bad,  take  no  thought  for  the  mor- 
row. Behold  the  birds  of  heaven.  They  sow  not,  neither  do  they 
reap,  yet  your  Heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Behold  the  lilies  of 
the  field,  whose  exquisite  purple  color  reminds  us  in  their  very  name, 
'  King  Lilies,'  of  all   the  splendor  of  King  Solomon's  robes,  and  they 


118  ETHICS. 

eclipse  it,  yet.  Has  not  each  hair  on  your  liead  its  own  channel  of 
nurture  in  order  not  to  interfere  with  the  others?  How  much  more 
is  every  human  being  provided  for  in  God's  paternal  care ! "  All  these 
beautiful  sayings  dropped  from  the  lips  of  the  Jewish  Essenes  of  the 
Talmud  as  well  as  from  Jesus.  Before  the  maxim,  "Lay  not  up 
treasures  on  earth,  where  moths  and  thieves  may  take  them,  but  lay 
up  treasures  for  yourselves  in  Heaven,"  was  penned  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, Monobaz,  King  of  Adiabene,  the  Jewish  proselyte,  son  of 
philantliropic  Queen  Helen,  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  preached  it  to  his 
own  greedy  brothers.  Let  others  guard  against  the  transgressions  of 
the  commands:  "Thou  shall  not  murder.  Thou  shalt  not  steal,  nor 
swear  falselv ! "  You  who  wish  to  ascend  the  hill  of  God  and  not  "■(> 
down  to  hell's  pit,  beware  of  anger,  of  calling  your  brother  by  names, 
of  keeping  sheep  and  goats  that  do  the  stealing  for  you,  of  swearing 
in  vain  or  profaning  the  name  of  God.  "  Let  thy  yea  be  yea,  and 
thy  nay  nay."  This  is  the  rule  of  the  Chamlim.  It  was  the  boast  and 
constant  prayer  of  these  Pious  Ones  that  neither  they  nor  their  beasts 
or  property  should  ever  cause  others  to  stumble.  Hence  the  declama- 
tion of  Jesus :  "Woe  to  the  man  thro.ugh  whom  stumbling  cometh. 
It  were  better  ior  him  to  have  a  millstone  hanged  about  his  neck  and 
be  sunk  into  the  bottom  of  the  sea."  Oh,  how  the  blood  curdles  in 
our  veins  as  we  hear  Jesus  cry  forth  :  "  If  thy  right  eye,  or  tliy  right 
hand  cause  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off  and  cast  it  from  thee;  for  it  is 
profitable  for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish  and  not  thy 
whole  body  go  to  hell."  Yet  fhe  Galilean  preacher  was  not  the  only 
one  who  used  this  phrase.  R.  Tarphon  has  the  identical  saying  in  the 
Talmud,  and  even  the  threat  of  Gehenna's  fire  against  him  that  lusts 
after  another  one's  wife  by  the  mere  clasping  of  hands,  is  derived  from 
Scriptures. 

THE    TRUE    CHARACTER    OF   JESUS. 

These  instances,  which  could  be  greatly  multiplied,  may  suffice  to 
show  that  Jesus  was  a  true  son  of  the  Synagogue.  Still,  it  is  a  mis- 
take on  the  part  of  Jewish  scholars  to  place  him  alongside  of  or  even 
beneath  Hillel,  the  liberal  schoolman,  and  Philo,  the  mystic  philoso- 
j)her.  Jesus  belonged  to  no  school.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people. 
In  him  the  Essene  ideal  of  love  and  fellowshi[)  took  a  new  and  grander 
form.  Unlike  John  the  Baptist,  he  felt  by  the  magic  power  of  divine 
love  drawn  to  the  very  lowest  of  his  fellow-creatures.  With  true 
greatness  of  mind,  ho  sat  down  with  those  shepherds,  publicans,  and 
sinners,  who,  in  the  eye  of  his  brother-Essenes,  were  doomed,  and 
whose  very  touch  seemed  to  them  to  be  polluting,  and  ate  and  drank 
witji  them,  saying:   "  I  have  come  to  save  the  lost  sheep  of  Israel,  not 


SYNAGOGUE   AND    CHURCH.  119 

the  healthy  but  the  sick  are  in  need  of  the  physician."  There  were 
Essenes  who  would  not  mind  pollutiou  while  teaching  the  Law,  say- 
ing: "  Can  the  law  be  defiled?  As  well  may  fire  or  the  great  ocean, 
the  fount  of  purity,  be  contaminated."  In  similar  manner,  Jesus  as- 
serts:  "The  heart  that  engenders  evil  thoughts  is  impure,  not  the 
hand.  O  ye  Pharisees,  ye  cleanse  the  outside  and  leave  the  inward 
parts  filthy  with  wickedness.  Of  you  hypocrites,  Isaiah  well  said  : 
'  With  their  lips  they  draw  near  me,  but  their  hearfs  are  far  from 
me.'"  This  is  the  language  of  a  prophet,  a  bold  reformer.  There 
Avas  at  least  one  school  of  the  Pharisees,  that  of  Shammai,  who  dis- 
countenanced arbitrariness  and  licentiousness  in  regard  to  divorce. 
Among  them,  R.  Eliezer  said  :  "The  altar  of  God  is  covered  with 
tears  when  the  wife  of  man's  youth  is  divorced,  for  '  I  hate  the  putting 
away,'  saith  the  Lord  through  Malachi."  Jesus  goes  straight  to  the 
bottom  of  the  truth,  saying:  "God  spoke:  The  twain  sliall  be  one 
flesh.  What  God  has  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder." 
The  same  sweeping  force  of  a  great  truth  is  voiced  by  him  in  regard 
to  the  adulterers.  The  ancient  saints  of  Jerusalem  would  release  the 
woman  suspected  of  adultery  from  the  ordeal  prescribed  in  the  Law, 
when  the  husband  is  not  perfectly  free  from  blame.  Jesus  put  it  in 
still  bolder  form  :  "Let  him  that  is  without  sin  first  cast  a  stone  at 
her."  Did  not  the  Essene,  Simon  ben  Jochai,  declare  the  Law  of  the 
prodigal  son  in  Deuteronomy  xxi,  18,  to  be  but  a  symbolical  lesson,  yet 
of  no  practical  bearing?  Jesus,  in  his  profound  sympathy  with  the 
erring,  went  farther  still  and  suggested  in  his  parable  that  the  prodigal 
sou  might  turn  out  the  better  one  after  all. 

And  with  the  same  courage  of  true  love  with  which  lie  reclaimed 
the  sinner,  he  solicited  the  company  of  woman,  the  very  target  of 
Satan's  arts  and  tricks  in  the  eyes  of  the  Essenes,  and  bi-oke  the  power 
of  her  doom.  At  his  awe-inspiring  presence,  Mary  Magdalene,  whose 
long  hair-locks  were  the  very  network  of  evil  spirits  to  entangle  men 
into  adultery,  according  to  Talmudical  tradition,  melted  into  tears  of 
repentance,  to  become  his  most  faithful  follower  to  the  very  grave  and 
the  first  witness  of  his  resurrection. 

With  the  same  freedom  of  the  spirit,  he  loosens  the  fetters  of  the 
Sabbath  laws.  To  be  sure,  the  Essene  brotherhood  had  turned  the 
somber  and  austere  Sabbatli  of  priestly  tradition  into  a  day  of  festive 
cheer  and  thanksgiving,  of  social  and  spiritual  elevation  and  comfort. 
Still  the  schools  clung  fast  to  the  letter,  forbidding  even  the  caring  of 
the  sick,  until  the  saints  of  Jerusalem,  of  whom  Simon  ben  Menasea 
was  one,  declared:  "  The  Sabbath  was  given  to  you,  not  you  to  the 
Sabbath."     Yet  how  in  a  case  of  ailment  without  danger?     (^tiick  to 


120  ETHICS. 

penetrate  into  the  principle  of  Essene  love,  Jesus  pursued  his  work  of 
healiug  on  the  Sabbath,  saying:  "The  Sabbath  is  given  to  man,  not 
man  to  the  Sabbath."  And  so  in  regard  to  the  plucking  and  eating 
ears  of  corn  in  the  week  preceding  the  Onier  or  thanksgiving  sacrifice 
of  corn  (the  second  Sabbath  or  week  of  the  First  Month — the  term  in 
Luke  being  misunderstood). 

Here  certainly  was  a  master  mind,  a  great  individuality,  a  relig- 
ious genius,  while  at  the  same  time  a  true  Essene,  the  paragon  and' 
acme  of  the  order  of  Chasidim.  But  Providence  had  designated  him 
to  be  more  than  preacher  and  saint.  He  died  as  martyr  of  the  Essene 
principle.  He  was  not  the  first  to  denounce  the  greedy  house  of  the 
High  Priesl*Hanan.  The  Talmud  has  preserved  the  prediction  of  an 
Essene  father  to  tlie  effect  that  "strife  and  greed  will  be  the  ruin  of 
the  second  temple,  just  as  murder  and  idolatry  were  that  of  the  first, 
but  (according  to  Jeremiah  xxxi,  6),  there  will  the  Xotzriin  (watch- 
men), come  from  Mount  Ephraim,  under  the  cry:  Yahve  Hosha, 
"Lord  save  the  people  of  Israel."  Did  these  remarkable  words  ring 
in  the  ears  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  he,  bursting  forth  into  a  fire  of 
just  indignation  at  seeing  Jerusalem  wnth  its  temple  turned  into  a 
poultry  and  cattle  market  and  money-exchange  for  the  priestly  house 
of  Hanan,  raised  the  cry  that  shook  the  temple  to  the  very  core  :  "  Is 
is  not  written  :  '  My  House  shall  be  called  a  House  of  Prayer  for  all  na- 
tions ;'  but  ye  made  it  a  den  of  thieves."  Surel}^  the  moment  he  seized 
the  tables  and  chased  money  changers  out  of  the  temple  precincts,  a  new 
spirit  must  have  taken  hold  of  him,  he  must  have  realized  something  like 
a  Messianic  calling  of  his.  And  who  can  tell  whether  at  that  mo- 
ment, so  full  of  awe,  he  may  not,  while  referring  to  that  ancient  pro- 
phecy of  the  Notziim  in  Jeremiah,  have  spelled  forth  the  hi)ly  name 
of  Jehovah,  combining  it  with  his  own  name,  Joshua  of  Nazareth,  so 
as  to  fill  the  very  air  about  him  with  sights  and  visions  of  the  Son  of 
Man  in  the  clouds  and  at  the  same  time  shock  and  alarm  the  bystand- 
ers with  the  blasphemous  word  or  act  of  a  "  seducer,"  corrupter," 
"  blasphemer"  and  "  magician."  From  that  hour,  on,  he  knew  that 
he  would  be,  as  he  said,  "delivered  to  the  high  priest  aud  Sanhedrin 
to  be  condemned  to  death,  and  then  handed  over  to  the  Gentiles  to  be 
mocked,  scourged  and  crucified."  He  fell  a  victim  of  his  Essene  zeal 
for  the  true  sanctuary  of  God  at  the  hands  of  his  Roman  executors 
and  his  cowardly  Sadducean  judges.  There  was  no  reason  for  the 
Jewish  people  at  large  nor  for  the  lea<lers  of  the  Synagogue  to  bear 
him  any  grudge  or  to  hate  the  noblest  and  most  lofty-miii<1(^(l  of  nil 
the  teachers  of  Israel.  It  was  the  anti-Semitism  of  the  second  cen- 
tury Church  that  cast  the  gtiilt  upon  the  Jew  and   his  religion.     Jesus 


SYNAGOGUE  AND  CHURCH.  121 

died  praying  for  the  forgiveness  even  of  his  cruel  murderers — a  true 
Essene  Jew. 

THE  EARLY  CHURCH. 

Before  the  church  turned  into  a  persecutor  of  the  innocent  Jews, 
the  followers  of  Jesus,  the  crucified  Christ,  were  perfect  Jews  them- 
selves. Let  me  call  special  attention  to  the  remarkable  fact,  not  no- 
ticed as  yet,  as  far  as  1  can  see,  by  any  theologian,  Jewisli  or  Chris- 
tian, that  the  entire  order  of  prayers  for  the  evening,  for  the  morning 
and  the  Sabbath,  was  word  by  word  taken  from  tiie  Synagogue  and 
preserved  in  the  last  two  Books  of  the  Apostolic  Constitutions,  a  col- 
lection belonging  to  the  second  century.  These  early  Christians 
never  dreamed  of  beholding  in  their  departed  Messiah  any  other  than 
a  human  being,  lifted  by  his  saintly  martyrdom  as  the  pure  white 
lamb  of  God  up  to  the  throne  of  heaven,  working,  by  his  very  death, 
as  the  Man  of  Sorrow,  the  ideal  saint  and  sufferer  of  the  53rd  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah,  atonement  for  their  sins.  And  if  they  saw  him  in  spir- 
itual garb  right  near  them  as  companion  and  brother  at  their  Essene 
love-feasts,  they  beheld  in  him  only  the  first  among  the  children  of 
God,  the  embodiment  of  all  Essene  virtue  and  holiness,  the  very  ideal 
of  greatness  and  tenderness,  yet  still  a  man  and  a  brother,  in  heavenly 
luster  shining  like  the  sun.  There  is  nothing  in  the  oldest  Apostolic 
teaching  and  Church  manual  for  proselytes  that  was  not  directly  taken 
over  from  the  Essene  tradition.  Only  when  the  simple  life  of  Jesus 
was  no  longer  remembered  as  a  grand  human  pattern  of  purity  and 
love,  but  from  an  atoning  high  priest  or  Passover  lamb  turned  into  a 
metaphysical  principle  of  the  world,  the  Logos  or  creative  word  of 
God  ;  when  he,  who  in  his  great  humility  declined  even  the  title  of 
"  good  master"  because  it  belonged  to  none  but  God  alone,  was  lifted 
above  the  reach  and  ken  of  humanity  to  be  the  inborn  Son  of  God 
turned  flesh ;  when  finally  all  the  mythological  aud  gnostic  elements 
of  Eg-ypt,  Syria  and  Alexandria  were  blended  with  the  nature  of  the 
man  Jesus,  then  the  leaders  of  the  Synagogue  apprehended  danger 
for  the  pure  monotheistic  faith  in  the  keeping  of  Israel  and  rejected 
the  Church  as  one'  of  the  many  gnostic  law-destroying  heretics  or 
Minim.  Still  the  intercourse  was  not  broken  off  altogether,  neither 
the  anathema  of  the  Synagogue  nor  the  Sunday  service  with  its  hail- 
ing of  the  light  of  the  first  day  as  symbolical  of  the  newly-risen  Sun 
of  righteousness,  could  eliminate  the  Jewish  character  of  the  Church 
and  Sabbath  worship.  With  the  downfsill  of  Jerusalem's  temple  and 
the  final  (n^erthrow  of  Judea,  however,  the  prediction  of  Jesus  seemed 
fulfilled.  The  victory  of  Rome  established  also  the  triumph  of  the 
Christian  cause.     The  Church,  making  peace  with  Rome  or  Babel,  the 


122  ETHICS. 

beast  of  Satan  of  the  Apocalypse,  while  disowning  the  mother  Syna- 
gogues, set  out  to  win  the  world  for  the  man-God,  while  the  Syna- 
gogue with  its  untrarameled  idea  of  the  one  God  and  Father,  spiritual 
and  holy,  with  its  historical  past  and  hope  for  the  future,  clung  all  the 
faster  to  the  Law  as  its  center  and  citadel.  The  Church  rose  like  the 
sun  over  the  nations,  while  amalgamating  the  Pagan  elements.  The 
Synagogue  protested  against  such  compromise,  while  waning  like  the 
moon  before  the  daughter  religion,  only  hoping  for  a  renewal.  The 
Church,  p(jiutiug  to  the  temple  ruins  as  the  death  warrant  of  an- 
cient Israel,  became  aggressive;  the  Synagogue  was  pushed  into 
defensive,  scattered  and  torn  into  shreds.  The  Church  became  the 
oppressor,  the  Jew  the  martyr;  the  Church  the  devouring  wolf;  Is- 
rael the  lamb  led  to  the  slaughter,  the  man  of  sorrow  from  whose 
wound  the  balm  of  healing  was  to  flow  for  the  nations. 

The  roles  seemed  exchanged.  Sixteen  hundred  years  of  perse- 
cution, however,  could  not  exterminate  the  remnant  of  Israel.  The 
Synagogue  proved  its  safeguard,  its  fortress  and  shield.  Judaism  re- 
mained, because  its  soul,  the  Law,  was  indestructible. 

MISSION  OF  CHURCH  AND  SYNAGOGUE  COMPARED. 

Here,  then,  we  come  to  the  real  issue  between  Church  and  Syna- 
gogue. It  can  not  and  ought  not  to  be  denied  that  the  ideal  of  a  hu- 
man life  held  up  by  the  Church  is  of  matchless  grandeur.  Beliind 
all  the  dogmatic  and  mystic  cobwebs  of  theology  there  is  the  fascinat- 
ing model  of  human  kindness  and  love,  a  sweeter  and  loftier  one  than 
which  was  never  presented  to  the  veneration  of  nnin.  All  tlie  traits 
of  the  Greek  .sage  and  Jewish  saint  are  harmoniously  blended  in  ihe 
man  of  Golgotha.  No  ethical  system  or  religious  catechism,  however 
broad  and  pure,  could  equal  the  efficacy  of  this  great  personality, 
standing,  unlike  any  other,  midway  between  heaven  and  earth,  equally 
near  to  God  and  to  man.  He  was  the  ideal  representation  and  sym- 
bol of  the  Essene  brotherhood,  nay,  the  perfect  brotherhood  of 
man  personified.  And  if  the  organizations  of  charity  connected 
with  his  name  were  not  new  to  those  brought  up  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Synagogue,  they  became  the  marvel  of  the  Gentile  world  and 
accomplished  wonders  there.  Jesus,  the  helper  of  the  poor,  the 
friend  of  the  sinner,  the  brother  of  every  fellow-sufferer,  the  com- 
forter of  every  sorrow-laden,  the  healer  of  the  sick,  the  uplifter  of 
the  fallen,  the  lover  of  man,  and  the  redeemer  of  woman,  won  the 
heart  of  niankind  by  storm.  Of  what  avail  was  the  proud  philosophy 
of  the  sage,  or  th(  depraved  religion  of  the  priest  to  a  world  longing 
for    God     and     for     redemption  from    >in    and    cruelty?       The    time 


SYNAGOGUE    AND    CHURCH.  123 

was  ripe  for  a  social  upheaval,  for  a  millennium,  in  which  the 
proud  ones  would  be  humbled  again  and  the  little  ones  become 
great.  Jesus,  the  meekest  of  men,  the  most  despised  of  the  despised 
race  of  the  Jews,  mounted  the  world's  throne  to  be  the  earth's  "reat 
King.  Was  this  not  a  victory  of  the  Jewish  truth,  the  triumph  of 
the  humanity  and  philanthropy  taught  and  practiced  in  the  Syna- 
gogue ? 

There  were  three  radical  effects  in  the  system  of  the  Church. 
First,  all  the  salvation  preached,  the  love  and  charity  practiced,  were 
all  made  dependent  upon  the  Creed.  The  rich  treasures  of  the 
love  of  the  Father  in  Heaven  were  all  withheld  from  those  who 
failed  to  recognize  the  souship  of  Christ,  the  sole  distributor.  The 
world  was  divided  into  believers  and  unbelievers ;  hence,  all  the 
fanaticism  and  cruelty  toward  heretics  and  dissenters.  Secondly,  to 
be  a  true  follower  of  Christ,  one  had  to  shape  life  after  the  pattern 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount — to  renounce  wife,  wealth  and  comfort, 
and  lead  the  life  of  a  monk  or  nun,  offering  no  resistance  to  acts  of 
injustice,  and  forget  the  claims  of  home  and  country,  of  state,  and  so- 
ciety, the  demand  of  justice  and  manliood,  of  intellectual  progress, 
and  of  industrial  enterprise.  There  was  no  room  left  for  civic  virtue. 
The  Church  had  to  create  a  double  code  of  ethics,  one  for  the  privi- 
leged class  of  monks  and  priests  and  another  for  the  laic  Avorld  ;  one 
for  the  faithful  and  one  for  the  infidel.  Here  was  the  door  opened  for 
every  vice,  to  the  eradication  of  which  Jesus  had  devoted  his  whole 
life. 

And  the  third  fault  of  the  New  Testament  ethics  is  that  it  turns 
the  human  gaze  too  exclusively  to  the  life  beyond  the  grave,  forget- 
ful of  the  duties  of  life  here  on  earth.  True  enougli,  the  symbol  of 
the  cross  had  lent  to  human  life  a  deeper  pathos,  and  to  sorrow  and 
suffering  a  holier  meaning.  It  has  robbed  death  of  its  horrors  and 
lifted  the  soul  from  an  unsatisfactory  existence  into  the  realm  of  a 
richer  and  higher  life.  Hence,  the  sweetest  strains  of  music,  the 
sublimest  flights  of  art  and  poetry  emanated  from  the  Church. 
What  power  of  inspiration  moved  a  Michael  Angelo  and  a  Raphael,  a 
Palestrino  and  a  Bach,  a  Dante  and  a  Milton!  What  a  crown  of 
real  saintliness  adorns  the  brows  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  or  the  Broth- 
erhood of  Misericord ia !  What  a  nobility  of  sentiment  is  there  in  a 
Father  Damien  or  in  a  La  Casas  !  And  to  the  asylums  for  orphans 
and  waifs,  to  hospital  and  poor-house,  Protestant  Christianity  added 
the  school-house  and  the  reformatory,  the  family  Bible,  and  individual 
freedom.  Still,  amidst  the  exclusive  cultivation  of  the  emotional  side, 
the  intellectual  culture  of  mankind  was  neglected.    Blind  faith  laughed 


124  ETHICS. 

knowledge  to  scorn.  The  simplicity  of  ignorance  oecame  a  virtue,  and 
science  a  snare  and  a  sin  of  tiie  devil.  Reason  fell  into  disuse.  Credo 
quia  absurdum  became  the  rule  ;  the  free-thinkers  were  cast  out  as 
lieretics.  The  consequence  was  that  the  Church  of  Christ  was  finally 
split  into  Churches.  The  Isew  Testament  was  found  insufficient  to 
serve  as  basis  for  the  social  structure  of  mankind.  The  Reformation, 
in  the  endeavor  to  establish  greater  freedom  and  broader  manhood, 
went  back  to  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  Mosaic  Law.  And  even  in 
our  days,  we  saw  Henry  George,  and  before  him,  Proudhon,  point  to 
the  Mosaic  system  of  land  aud  labor  division  as  a  pattern  or  suggestion 
for  tiieir  socialistic  ideas  aud  plans. 

It  was  the  Synagogue  that,  before  and  with  the  Mosque,  held  up  the 
light  of  culture  and  learning,  the  torch  of  science,  at  the  time  when 
there  was  densest  darkness  I'ound  about  the  Church. 

The  Synagogue  made  study  the  first  religious  duty  of  the  Jew. 
It  was  the  father's  pride  ever  since  Josephus  and  Philo  to  have  his  sons 
trained  w'ell  in  the  Law.  The  entire  life  of  the  Jew  was  soldier-like 
drilling  for  the  sacred  battle  in  behalf  of  truth.  Let  Temple  and  State 
sink  into  ruin,  the  scliool-house  will  save  Israel  from  shipwreck,  was 
the  consoling  word  uf  Johanan  ben  Zakkai,  the  witness  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Temi)le.  True,  the  Synagogue  had  no  life,  no  ideal  of 
human  greatness  to  point  at,  as  uplifting  and  inspiring,  as  was  })re- 
sented  by  the  Church  in  her  Christ.  All  the  greater  scope  was  left 
for  each  individual  to  work  out  his  own  salvation.  Instead  of  offer- 
ing one  perfect  pattern  of  humanity,  Judaism  holds  forth  as  maxim  : 
"God  is  the  only  pattern  of  holiness  ;  men  are  but  strivers  after  the 
ideal."  But  while  Judaism  fails  to  offer  a  perfect  human  model  of  in- 
dividual greatness,- it  presents  a  far  safer  basis  of  social  ethics  than 
the  Church  does.  The  Decaloifue  is  a  better  foundation  to  build  on 
than  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  Society  can  not  be  reared  on  mere 
love,  an  element  which  is  altogether  too  pliable  and  yielding.  Justice 
and  law  are  the  pillars  of  God's  throne.  Love  is  but  the  shining 
countenance  of  the  divine  ideal.  The  stability  of  life  rests  on  im- 
mutable law.  The  tal)lets  with  tlu^  eternal  Thou  Shalt  I  and  Thou 
Shalt  Not!  lend  to  the  right  and  the  true  its  awe-inspiring  authority. 
Justice  implies  the  right  of  every  being.  Altruism  is  fallacious  if  it 
disregards  the  claims  of  the  ego.  Saints  are  proper  jjeople  for  heaven  ; 
the  earthlv  life  demands  men  of  stei-ner  stuff,  of  good  sense  and  self- 
respect. 

Judaism  is  the  embodiment  of  a  noble  contest  for  righteousness, 
independence,  and  truth.  The  Law  rciidcrcil  the  Jew  soi)er,  practical, 
and  self-reliani.      C'huich   charity  often    pnupc  ri/.rd    the    masses.     The 


SYNAGOGLK    AND    CHURCn.  125 

poor  Jew  \va-  upheld  mid    uplifted    liv  discretion   and    aood   jiulgmeut 
combined  with  love. 

In  the  Synagogue,  rea?:f)n  dominated  over  the  mysteries  of  relig- 
ion. Ceremonialism  was  after  all  a  good  school  of  temperance  and  j)ri- 
vation  for  the  Jew  to  concentrate  his  mind  on  the  practical  objects 
and  aims  of  life.  Dogma  never  became  a  fetter  to  winged  thought, 
nor  was  the  shadow  of  the  dark  bevond  allowed  to  obscure  the  view 
of  life.  Whatever  harsh  things  are  said  concerning  the  rigor  of  the 
law,  the  chief  feature  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Jew  was  its  cheerful- 
ness. The  Sabbath  meant  joy  for  every  home,  nay,  for  every  heart, 
even  for  the  homeless.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  gloom  of  the  Ghetto,  the 
optimistic  view  prevailed.  "  No  evil  but  works  for  the  good  "  was  the 
general  maxim.  Consequently  there  was  a  willingness  on  the  part  of 
the  Synagogue  to  recognize  also  the  soul  of  truth  in  every  error  in- 
stead of  condemning  the  same.  I  wonder  whether  any  father  of  the 
Church  ever  showed  such  good  will  to  the  Synagogue  as  the  leading 
authorities  of  the  Synagogue,  Moses  ben  Maimon,  the  great  thinker 
of  Cordova,  and  the  Castilian  poet  and  philosopher,  Juda  Halevi, 
displayed  toward  both  Church  and  Mosque  when  declaring  that  both 
Jesus  and  Mohammed  are  God's  great  apostles  to  the  heathen,  intrusted 
with  the  task  of  bringing  the  nations  of  the  West  and  East  ever  nearer 
to  God,  the  universal  Father?  And  which  of  the  Churches  has  a 
word  to  match  the  grand  declaration  of  the  rabbis  made  at  the  very 
time  when  the  gospels  were  composed,  that  "  all  the  good  and  the 
just  among  the  heathen  have  as  good  a  share  in  the  bliss  of  the  world 
to  come  as  the  descendants  of  Abraham  " — a  view  which  became  the 
general  recognized  dogma  of  the  Synagogue. 

Thus,  in  the  great  battle  between  Moslem  and  Christian,  between 
faith  and  reason,  between  love  and  hatred,  the  Jew  stood  all  through 
the  ages  pointing  to  a  higher  justice,  a  broader  love,  to  a  fuller  hu- 
manity, ever  waiting  and  working  for  the  larger  brotherhood  of  man. 
While  standing  in  defense  of  his  own  disputed  rights,  the  Jew  helped, 
and  still  helps,  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  cause,  not  of  a  single  sect, 
or  race,  or  class,  but  of  humanity  ;  in  the  establishing  of  freedom  of 
thought  and  of  conscience,  in  the  unfolding  of  perfect  manhood,  in 
the  rearing;  of  the  Kingdom  of  Justice  and  Love,  in  which  ail  creeds 
and  nationalities,  all  views  and  i)urposes,  blend  like  the  rainbow  colors 
of  the  one  bright  light  of  the  sun.  Judaism  begins  and  ends  with 
Man — "  Not  unto  ns,  0  Lord,  to  Thy  name  belongs  the  glory."  Not 
a  single  man,  however  great,  not  avsingle  Church,  however  broad,  holds 
the  key  to  many-sided  Truth.  Like  this  great  parliament— humanity 
voices  the  truth  in  many  forms  and  tunes. 


126  ETHICS. 

Siuai,  cloud-enwrapped,  stands  out  lonely  in  the  desert,  crying 
forth:  Move  onward,  ye  wandering  shepherds.  Golgotha,  with  its 
golden  aureole  around  the  brow  of  one  single  saintly  sufferer,  forms  a 
high  peak  in  the  promontory  of  truth  and  love,  but  fails  to  offer  stand- 
ing-room for  all  God-seeking  tribes  of  mankind.  But  Zion,  with  all 
the  hills  of  God  and  all  the  worshiping  nations  and  ages  round  about, 
towers  far  higher  yet.  When  life's  deepest  mysteries  are  once  all 
spelled  forth  and  God  is  sought  and  found,  revealed  and  felt  every- 
where, when  to  the  ideals  of  sage  and  saint  that  of  the  perfect  lover 
of  man  has  been  joined,  the  seeker  after  all  that  is  good,  beautiful,  and 
true,  then  Church  and  Synagogue,  Jew  and  Gentile,  the  pursuer  of 
love  and  the  pursuer  of  righteousness  and  truth,  will  have  merged 
into  one  Church  Universal,  into  a  humanity  in  the  likeness  of  God,  into 
the  city  whose  name  is,   "  The  Lord  is  there." 


UNIVERSAL   ETHICS    OF    PROF.   IIEYMANN    STEINTIIAL.  12't 


UNIVERSAL  ETHICS  OF  PROFESSOR  HEV)1ANX  STEIXTHAL. 

By  KABBI   CLIFTOX   II.  LEVY. 


We  have  before  us  the  work  of  a  moderu  Jewish  Philosopher,  in 
whose  abseuce  we  must  look  to  his  written  self  for  light  and  instruc- 
tion. Let  it  be  our  task  to  find  the  "objectified  spirit"  of  Steinthal 
in  the  thoroughgoing,  lofty-ininded  pages  warm  from  his  brain  and 
heart.  What  follows  is  presented  as  the  digest  of  his  work,  in  as 
faithful  adherence  to  his  words  and  spirit  as  possible. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Etliics  teaches  wherein  the  perfection  and  destiny  of  man  con- 
sist— treats  of  character,  freedom,  duty,  and  accountability.  It  is 
practical  philosophy  ;  /.  e.,  the  philosophy  (theory)  of  practice  or  the 
practical  life  of  man.  Superadded  to  the  science  must  be  the  impulse 
to  goodness.  In  Germany,  ethics  is  relegated  to  the  church,  is  con- 
sidered tiresome,  and  lacks  the  interest  belonging  to  natural  science, 
historical  research,  and  anthropology.  But  Schiller  and  Goethe  have 
shown  the  need  of  esthetics  and  ethics,  so  that  no  poem  or  picture 
lacking  these  may  look  for  favor  or  immortality. 

Back  of  all  tiieology  and  philosophy  lies  ethics  as  the  moral  con- 
sciousness manifest  in  moral  life  and  proverbs.  Primitive  men  include 
morality  in  religion  as  the  command  of  God.  In  times  of  uulielief, 
noble  spirits  are  needed  to  restrain  those  who  think  there  is  no  moral- 
ity, no  duty,  no  virtue. 

The  task  of  ethics  to-day  is  to  implant  idealism  in  the  mechanical 
methods  of  the  world — ethics  alone  can  redeem  us  from  mec^liauic- 
alism. 

The  scientific  form  of  ethics  is  in  the  treatment  of  the  eternally 
moral  laws  of  commerce,  of  labor,  of  ends  and  means,  of  good  and 
duty,  of  socialism  in  good  doing. 

No  new  categories  are  found  in  logic,  no  new  virtues  in  ethics, 
but  the  principles  lying  behind  tliese  virtues  must  be  improved  and 
classified.  Ethics  takes  its  place  among  the  sciences  first  in  the  light 
of  freedom.     The  measure  of  freedom  is  the  first  step  forward.     It  is 


128  ETHICS. 

deductive  in  all  its  methods  and  distinct  from  the  history  of  morals. 
Ethics  is  the  theory  of  conscious  judgment,  is  purely  formal,  aud  ex- 
presses itself  in  the  praise  or  blame  of  deeds. 

We  feel  ourselves  as  feeling,  we  ourselves  are  the  only  object  of 
all  possible  feelings,  which  are  modifications  of  ourself.  Perception 
and  thought  are  transitive,  feeling  is  intransitive  or  reflexive.  Only 
the  soul  feels,  but  there  are  feelings  of  sense  and  of  spirit — these  are 
not  subjectively  distinguished  but  by  the  cause  either  bodily  or  spirit- 
ual—  they  depend  on  whether  w'e'  feel  a  stone  or  a  thought.  The  ego 
is  the  center  of  these  feelings  Avhich  are  altogether  a  matter  of  rela- 
tion. We  have  the  following  classes  of  judgment  according  to  the 
relation  of  feeling  : 

1.  Is  any  thing  pleasant?  Judgment  of  feeling  in  narrower 
sense. 

2.  Is  a  means  useful?     Practical  judgment. 

.'>.   Is  a  given  knowledge  true?     Logical  judgment. 

4.  Is  a  given  form  beautiful?     Esthetic  judgment. 

5.  Is  a  given  deed  moral?     Ethical  judgment. 

Ethics  seeks  the  eternally  valuable  and  humanly  necessary,  the 
moral  may  however  be  pleasant  and  useful.  Ethical  feeling  is  not 
awakened  by  the  merely  useful  or  pleasant,  but  by  the  beautiful  and 
good.  Something  of  the  objective  is  superadded.  Being  not  patho- 
logical l)ut  objective,  a  criticism  is  possible,  as  in  logic.  Their  exist- 
ence is  proven  in  facts — they  are  unified,  and  are  not  pathologic. 
Since  what  separates  objective  feeling  from  the  pathologic  connects  it 
with  knowledge  (perceptions),  it  is  not  egoistic,  not  furthering  or  lim- 
iting life,  not  helping  or  harming,  but  only  awakens  feeling.  It  is  not 
egoistic  or  egotistic,  but  omitting  the  we  pronounces  a  deed  good  or 
bad,  i.  e. ,  it  is  objective.  Moreover  it  is  absolute  fixing  the  worth  and 
universal  value.  In  simple  feeling  we  destroy  the  pleasant  by  enjoy- 
ing it — in  esthetics  the  pleasure  of  the  beautiful  is  indestructible. 
Their  reproductive  force  is  greater  than  mere  sensation  by  the  addition 
of  logical  thought,  e.  rj.,  axioms,  principles,  abstract  laws,  but  bodily 
action  exhausts  force.  The  ethical-esthetic  is  altogether  objective, 
dealing  with  forms  of  the  object.  Hednjiism  is  not  ethical,  dealing 
with  matter.  The  objective  feelings  are  formal,  seizing  upon  relations, 
not  matter,  as  there  is  esthetically  a  pure  form,  so  is  there  ethically. 
Form  is  the  unity  of  the  many.  The  esthetic  and  ethical  differ  from 
the  scientific,  logical,  and  pyschological,  because  they  are  without  ac- 
tivity for  the  j)ower  of  existence.  The  statue  may  be  material,  but  it 
is  artistic  in  form  only — form  is  the  unity  of  the  many,  a  synthesis 
making  an  ideal  object  only.     Pure  form  is  the  idea,  therefore  formal 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF   PROE.  IIEYMANN    8TEINTITAL.  129 

feeling  may  he  termed  ideal,  dilors  harmonize  by  the  unity,  not  the 
qnality  of  the  separate  colors.  The  sejjarate  syllables  of  a  verse  are 
immaterial,  but  the  verse  as  an  artistic  whole  has  an  ideal  existence, 
ideal  and  objective  in  esthetic  feeling.  This  formal  feeling  may 
awaken  the  j)athol()gic,  the  ethos  has  its  pathos.  Pathologic  feeling  is 
practically  weighty — the  formal  is  purely  theoretic,  a  knowledge-feeling. 
Ethics  is  the  highest  human  dominion.  The  deed  does  not  make  the 
ethics  (ethos),  it  is  practice  and  belongs  to  reality;  ethics  comes  from 
ethical  feelinir  oidv  whicli  iud«i'e3  the  will  and  begets  the  deed. 

Then  considering  Ideas  in  (jencral  and  the  idea  of  good  in  paiiiadar 
the  opposition  between  Idea  and  precept,  law  and  concept,  must  be 
noted.  There  is  uo  generally  accepted  definition  ot'  idea,  but  it  may 
be  said  that  the  idea  ('^^  a  category  of  judgment,  not  of  perce[)tion. 
Ideals  precede  ideas  in  human  consciousness.  Before  the  idea  of  virtue 
is  conceived  the  father  is  a  model  to  the  son,  the  teacher  to  the  pupil. 
The  idea-content  of  virtue  was  at  first  only  thought  in  this  f  )rm  of 
ditieretit  models  or  types.  Then  the  qualities  were  al)stracted  from  a 
number  of  types.  As  it  seems  impossil)le  to  combine  all  beauties  in  a 
single  face,  so  we  have  various  ideals.  The  idea  is  the  one  creative 
thing,  the  one  active  power  in  mankind.  The  original  model  is  the 
idea  which  man  has,  the  existence  of  which  he  recognizes  in  later  life. 
Any  thing  is  beautiful  or  good  because  it  corresponds  to  the  model. 
The  model  is  thus  and  so,  because  the  idea  furthers  it.  Formal  feel- 
ing announces  immediately  the  acceptation  or  rejection  of  any  thing, 
the  ground  of  which  is  critirisui.  The  theory  of  criticism  is  the  expo- 
sition of  the  content  of  the  idea.  The  idea  differs  from  concept  and 
law  in  being  the  object  of  formal  feeling — not  lying  in  things,  but  in 
their  relations.  Laws  contain  material  determinatit)ns,  ideas  only 
formal,  therefore  f  )rmal  feeling  is  also  called  ideal.  Neither  is  the 
esthetic  idea  a  mathematical  proportion  or  a  law.  The  ethical  forms 
a  real  unity  of  the  various  parts,  not  a  mere  combination  of  thoni,  this 
being  readied  by  intuitive  ])roceduie,  not  by  discursive. 

The  idea  of  a  picture  differs  from  the  concept,  one  knowing  it  as 
beautiful,  the  other  as  an  actuality.  The  ear  furnishes  esthetic  uni- 
ties, almost  purely — the  polysyllable  presents  a  spiritual  unity  when 
heard.  The  special  concept  conceives  a  thing  as  actual,  the  esthetic 
makes  an  intelligible  mode,  e.  g.,  a  picture,  a  pure  form.  The  idea 
needs  homogeneousness  and  reciprocal  penetration  of  the  members  of 
relations;  tone  combines  with  tone,  color  with  color — there  is  a  sort 
of  spiritual  chemistry.  Categories  are  the  f  )rms  of  processes  which, 
like  ideas,  are  creative.  The  ethically  good  is  objective  in  and  for 
'       9 


1  oO  ETHICS. 

itself,  aud  not  relative  to  anyone  or  anything.  Its  province  is  to 
teach  what  is  good  or  bad.  Good  and  bad  are  the  categories  of  ethics 
on  which  ethical  feeling  lays  hold  for  the  will.  The  will  is  good  or 
bad  objectively,  not  subjectively  only.  The  good  will  is  good  <nily  for 
the  ethical  feeling  of  appi-obatiou — it  may  he  absolutely  good.  The 
will,  not  as  power,  but  according  to  conscious  relations,  is  good — forms 
the  ideal  picture. 

When  the  form  and  structure  of  ethics  is  to  be  considered,  its  character 
vnist  be  fully  stated.  In  speaking  of  the  doctrines  of  virtue,  good,  aud 
duty,  we  come  to  the  consideration  f)f  tlieir  development.  At  first 
man  .sought  favors  of  God  by  piety  and  morality,  aiming  at  happiness, 
and  this  is  the  germ  that  is  still  in  process  of  development.  It  was 
found  that  the  most  j)ious  were  not  always  the  most  happy,  and  it  was 
concluded  that  the  highest  happiness  lies  in  the  possession  of  virtues. 
Ethics  became  the  teaching  of  virtue,  and  then  of  the  hi'diest  w-oofi. 
]s  the  highest  good  virtue?  Is  duty  virtue?  Then  ethics  is  duty. 
Good,  virtue,  duty  form  a  circle  lying  in  the  formal  feeling  of  moral- 
ity. Hedonism  is  impossible  for  ethics,  because  it  is  empiric.  The 
popular  doctrine  of  salvation  is  a  refined  doctrine  of  desire.  Goods 
and  duties  are  also  empiric,  furnishing  facility  only.  Ethics  teaches 
the  good  relations  of  will-ideas.  Ethics  resembles  esthetics,  in  being 
the  idea  of  the  good,  as  the  latter  is  the  idea  of  the  beautiful. 

We  shall  divide  ethics  into  four  parts  for  treatment.  First,  the  es- 
sence of  a  good  will;  second,  a  full  presentation  of  ethical  life  in 
human  consciousness;  third,  of  individuals,  virtue,  duty  and  char- 
acter, freedom,  obligation  and  responsibility,  the  "phenomenology  of 
morality."  Then  the  depths  of  ethics,  the  basis  of  obligation,  of  eth- 
ical furtherances,  the  metaphysics  of  ethics. 

As  to  the  style  of  ethics,  it  is  not  sermonic,  but  treats  of  the  rela- 
tion of  idea  and  reality,  that  ideas  are  relations  of  will — tliey  arc  no- 
where and  every-where.  It  depends  upon  history,  as  it  is  filled  with 
the  past,  aud  lifts  humanity  to  a  higher  plane.  It  i)resenls  what  is 
eternally  good,  praiseworthy  and  true.  There  is  a  distinctly  ethical 
judgment,  and  the  difference  in  murals  d(jes  not  inijjugn  the  absolute 
ciiaracter  of  ethical  ideas.  No  one  can  develop  ethics  a  priori,  losing 
sijiht  of  man's  struggles  in  morality  ;  it  analyzes  morality.  We  trace 
the  psychological  processes  of  ethics,  holding  in  view,  not  the  individual, 
but  (as  seen  in  tlu'  fnurth  part)  the  ideal  essence  of  humanity,  without 
ignoring  experience.  But  ethics  is  formal  and  history  is  material ;  it 
can  deal  with  the  abstract  ordy.  !Moral  laws  are  meie  ideas  with  no 
relation  to  power  or  matter.  Ethics  teaches  with  consideration  of 
what  has  been,  what  should  be;  it  teaches  the  eternal  form  of  will  \Vith 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF    PROF.    HEYMANN    STEINTIIAL.  181 

the  inner  owjhi,  not  considering  mud  or  can.     The  law  of  freedom  is 
the  content  of  the  moral  command  of  ethics.     We  should  speak  of 
moral  commands,  not  of  moral  laws.     Freedom  is  not  real — a  must, 
but  a  should,  a  command,  a  holy  obligation. 
So  much  by  way  of  introduction. 

PART    I. 

The  first  part  treats  of  the  ethical  doctrines  of  Ideas.  The  ethical 
ideas  must  treat  of  all  possible  objects  of  the  will,  not  as  psychologic, 
but  as  facile  and  quiescent,  and  also  of  the  relations  between  wills. 
The  ideas  may  be  thus  enumerated  : 

1.  The  idea  of  ethical  personality  on  which  rests  the  adjustment 
of  every  will  to  ethical  ideas.  That  the  judgment  of  self  so  trained 
pleases,  and  the  non-performance  displeases. 

2.  The  ethical  personality  bears  a  similar  relation  to  others  of  the 
same  kind,  including  them  in  itself,  and  aiming  at  furthering  them. 
Well-wishing. 

3.  Two,  several,  many  combine  their  wills  into  one,  produce  the 
idea  of  unity. 

4.  Each  ethical  personality  gives  like  regard  to  the  other,  that 
the  will  of  others  for  their  own  will  is  so  far  limited  that  it  does  not 
thwart  it,  but  is  acknowledged  and  sanctioned.  The  idea  of  Right- 
eousness. 

5.  The  idea  of  perfection  finally  lies  in  the  grade  in  which  the 
ethical  personality  establishes  ethical  ideas  in  controlling  force  over  its 
will.  Each  idea  is  independent,  no  one  derived  from  the  others,  only 
in  the  form  of  will  or  mind.  This  form  supports  the  will  as  the  essence 
of  infelligible  rule.  The  ideas  are  in  so  far  dependent  as  they  complete 
or  supplement  one  another.  Each  idea  presents  all  morality  from  one 
side,  all  being  synocymous  to  one  another  and  morality.  The  three 
ideas,  well-wishing,  union  and  righteousness,  are  the  three  possible  ac- 
cords of  movements  of  the  will. 

As  man  reasons  without  knowing  logic,  so  unconsciously  he 
judges  ethically.  Ethical  science  aims  to  raise  this  ethical  conscious- 
ness to  clearness  and  precision,  as  logic  does  speech  and  thought. 

The  first  point  concerning  the  moral  personality  is  that  ethical 
character  demands  judgment  and  it  demands  not  only  the  harmo- 
nizing of  the  will  with  the  ethical  model,  but  must  finally  develop  the 
will.  The  will  must  be  subserved  under  an  ethical  idea.  We  can 
not  think  of  the  idea  without  thinking  of  the  will.  Ethical  insight 
must  compel  the  will  to  act,  and  impel  to  the  formation  of  resolution. 
The  first  ethical  idea  is  thus  formulated.     "  That  will  alone  is  satisfac- 


1 32  ETHICS. 

torv  to  man  (be  it  what  it  may,  according  to  ethical  examination),  which 
is  in  harmony  with  ethical  insight;  and  vice  versa,  the  will  which  man 
resolves  upon  (notwithstanding  ethical  examination)  in  opposition  to 
ethical  insight  is  unsatisfactory.  The  will  and  ethical  insight  must  be 
homogeneous. 

Ethics  is  the  doctrine  of  mind— the  will  is  only  the  active  means 
of  mind.  Mind  is  the  ethical  peasonality,  and  it  is  by  morality  that 
a  man  becomes  an  intelligible  person,  citizen  of  the  intelligible  king- 
dom. He  must  be  veracious  and  conscientious.  Man  has  the  facility 
for  ethics  and  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  his  idea  makes  charac- 
ter. Man  is  his  own  moral  creator,  artist  and  picture  in  one,  the  es- 
sential to  character  being  morality.  He  must  be  in  harmony  with 
others,  for  egotism  and  lust  are  barred  out  of  ethics. 

The  second  idea,  well-wishing,  is  taught  first  and  best  in  the  Bible. 
Love  is  sought  in  vain  among  the  four  cardinal  virtues  of  the  other 
ancients.  The  Bible  gives  two  forms  of  well-wishing — righteousness 
and  love.  Well  wishing  consists  in  a  relation  of  feeling  between  two 
persons,  binding  them  together.  One  takes  the  other  into  his  con- 
sciousness. His  essence  and  activity  are  absorbed,  joy  and  care  are 
superadded.  This  may  be  partial  in  energy  or  depth.  It  is  truest  in 
benevolence  to  all,  in  love  and  self-sacrifice — giving  hope  or  alms.  Its 
opposites  are  revenge,  jealousy,  envy,  or  vexing  of  any  sort.  The 
will,  wish,  thought  of  the  interest  of  others  should  be  the  motive  of 
our  will.  It  is  not  like  righteousness,  a  movement  of  character,  but 
it  is  a  dedication  of  the  entire  personality,  helping  otliers  toward 
moral  life.  Thought  and  feeling  are  also  ethical,  in  forming  relations 
between  personalities.  Well-wishing  is  more  than  doing  good,  feeling 
is  essential  and  primary, — will  is  secondary  and  accidental.  The 
spirit  of  man  is  full  of  character — it  is  moral,  because  permeated  by 
moral  will,  thinking,  and  feeling.  The  spirit  is  proportionate  to  be- 
nevolence. It  differs  from  sympathy,  as  it  does  not  wait  for  evil  to 
show  itself,  and  the  latter  is  without  will,  psychological,  pathological, 
and  unethical.  We  may  be  filled  (and  should  be)  with  benevolence  for 
the  wicked  with  whom  we  have  little  sympathy.  Sympathy  is  a 
natural  gift,  well-wishing  is  an  ethical  idea. 

God  is  the  living  absolute  goodness.  Therefore  man  should  serve 
Him  with  all  thoughts,  feelings,  and  efforts — that  is  the  meaning  of 
loving  God  with  heart,  soul,  and  might — this  ethics  furthers.  Right- 
eousness will  show  what  man  owes  to  man — so  much  that  nothing  re- 
mains for  benevolence.     These  two  go  hand  in  hand. 

The  IViblical  command  to  love  our  neighboi's  displays  the  idea  of 
legal  equality,  and  Lev.  xix  presents  our  duties  in  an  ascending  eth- 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF    PROF.    IIEYMAXX    STEIXTIIAE.  133 

ical  scale.  It  commend.s  kindness  to  the  poor  and  the  stranger— for- 
bids stealing,  lying,  robbery  ;  forbids  the  keeping  of  the  pledge  over 
night,  taking  advantage  of  weakness;  enforces  to  righteousness  in 
judgment,  forbidding  slander,  hatred,  oppression,  even  of  enemies. 
As  monotheism  [jerfected  right,  it  also  deepened  right. 

The  third  idea — Union — is  the  essence  of  all  constructiou  — the 
foundation  of  society  as  a  community  for  working  together.  Not 
merely  similarity  of  spirit  or  moral  essence,  but  a  union  is  formed  for 
a  common  purpose.  We  have  the  objective  relation  of  will  f  )rming 
an  idea  distinct  from  well-wishing.  Union  is  fur  an  end,  not  merely 
mutual  like  benevolence.  Union  destroys  egotism,  making  each  for 
all  and  all  for  each.  The  combination  must  be  for  good  ends  or  it  is 
out  of  harmony  with  tlie  ethical  idea.  From  good  men  only  does 
good  come.  The  bad  want  what  they  do  not  need,  and  do  not  want 
what  they  do  need  ;  but  they  know  what  they  are  doing.  A  baud  of 
robbers  is  bound  bv  egotism,  not  by  the  idea  of  union.  Those  unions 
are  good  which  are  formed  for  lasting,  future  benefit,  and  are  not  a 
fortuitous  coming  together  like  those  in  a  car. 

Race  hatred,  class  hatred,  religious  hatred,  impede  and  prevent 
true  unity.  The  copartnership  for  gain  is  no  higher  ethically  than  the 
single  merchant.  A  factory  is  an  ethical  unity  only  when  culture  has 
chanced  its  character  from  mere  monev  makinir  to  a  real  unitv.  In 
political  and  religious  bodies  lie  greater  possibilities  for  thought  of  all. 
The  spirits  of  many  should  be  unified  to  the  spirit  of  a  unity.  The 
adherence  to  our  native  land,  our  people,  our  religion,  is  the  highest 
evidence  of  this  idea  in  the  moral  life  of  men.  Confirmation  in  a  re- 
ligion makes  a  man  religious,  not  being  born  into  it.  A  man  is  a  citi- 
zen only  when  he  does  something  for  the  state.  The  unity  of  spirits 
is  no  quiescent  relation,  but  is  a  mfu'al  deed.  The  union  of  idea  may 
be  formulated  thus:  "  Tlie  single  will  and  common  will  are  forthwith 
absorbed  into  one  another."        ^ 

The  fourth  idea — rigid  and  righteousness.  Judicial  and  ethical 
right  are  very  different,  but  right  is  never  against  good  morals. 
The  jurist  condemns  the  thief  for  breaking  the  law;  the  ethical 
man  censures  him  for  being  immoral.  Ethically,  we  refrain  from 
wrong,  not  because  it  is  against  the  law,  but  because  it  is  immoral. 
The  jurist  omits  feeling — he  regards  the  overt  act,  considers  the 
act  by  rule,  not  by  idea.  Right  assists  well-wishing  by  giving  it 
room  and  removing  hindrances,  and  therein  it  is  moral.  Right  may 
be  defined  as  "the  system  of  conditioning  by  restriciion,  by  which  social, 
moral  ends  are  made  safe."     The  stream  of  morality  guides  the  right, 


134  KTHICS. 

which,  as  the  science  of  right,  is  non-ethical,  and  becomes  ethical  only 
when  motives  are  considered. 

Methods  of  trade  are  often  selfish  and  not  for  the  common  good, 
instead  of  being  guided  by  the  idea  to  live  and  let  live.  Right  and 
duty  should  be  conceived  as  one.  Peace  is  the  cradle  of  right — the 
proper  peace  which  flows  from  the  triumph  of  right,  not  might. 

Rights  are  innate ;  we  love  rights  because  vve  are.  Not  right  in 
itself  is  ethical,  but  righteousness — considering  Hie  rights  of  otliers.  The 
only  positive  rigid  is  the  right  of  recognition  of  human  worth,  i.  e.,  our 
ethical  personalitji,  by  considering  our  moral  will.  Righteousness  consists 
in  recognizing  the  worth  of  others,  the  value  of  their  will,  whereby  the 
righteous  become  of  value  to  others.  The  contest,  not  for  right,  but  for 
the  recognition  of  right,  is  in  the  highest  degree  moral — the  striving 
for  the  recognition  of  right  in  the  community  is  a  highly  moral  task. 
Is  right  derived  from  the  feeling  of  right,  or  vice  versa  f  Codified  law 
is  built  upon  custom — even  unwritten  law  is  not  to  be  violated.  It  is 
immanent  in  commerce  and  is  developed  with  ever  increasing  complex- 
ity. The  essence  of  right  is  threefold  :  it  is  objective  in  the  law  book 
and  commerce,  subjective  in  the  spirit  of  those  constituting  the  society 
of  right,  and  last,  moral..  Man  is  within  his  right  always  by  the 
recognition  of  right.  The  objective  and  subjective  may  disagree  in 
the  application,  producing  wrong  right.  Etliics  is  the  judge  above 
laws  and  maxims,  is  the  feeling  for  right  in  the  community — accord- 
ing to  it,  all  history  is  the  development  of  morality  or  of  intelligible 
rule. 

When  we  view  the  right  of  punishment  or  coercive  force,  ethics 
censures  its  wrong  use,  giving  no  absolute  rule  of  punishment.  Ethics 
forbids  the  return  of  ill-will  for  ill-will.  Punishment  is  warranted, 
only  for  betterment.  The  state  has  no  right  to  do  this,  while  society 
may.  We  may  even  have  the  combination  of  right  wi-ong  in  excep- 
tional cases.  Right,  being  purely  formal,  could  not  unfold  itself  freely 
without  having  been  written  down,  so  that  improvement  is  possible. 
Laws  are  needed,  to  be  fixed  and  certain.  The  ideal  of  just  punish- 
ment is  that  the  violator  punishes  himself  by  weakening  iiis  conscious- 
ness of  light.  In  the  life  of  a  nation,  the  ethical  personality  is  broad- 
ened and  made  intelligible.  In  Rome  and  England,  where  there  was 
greater  freedom,  great  characters  were  developed  ;  in  Germany,  where 
the  development  of  right  has  been  checked,  the  feeling  of  light  is 
weak,  while  that  of  well-wishing  is  stronger.  Right,  unlike  benevo- 
lence, is  or  is  not — but  is  not  graded. 

The  fifth  idea,  prrfection,  contains  the  final  effort  of  ethics,  and  is 
svnonvmous  with  moralitv.     Man  should   be  more  and  more  a  moral 


UNIVERSAL    EIHICS    OF    PROF.   HEYMANN    STEINTHAL.  18;") 

personality.  Becoming  more  perfect  in  moralify  is  pleasing  {to  ethical 
feeUiig).  Retrograding  or  standing  ■  still  is  displeasing.  Equality  dis- 
pleases. ICthics  is  not  merely  interpretative  and  analytic,  like  es- 
thetics, but  announces  man's  duty  to  be  the  objectifying  of  the 
ethical  ideas  in  consciousness  in  ever  higher  degree.  Activity  is  de- 
manded of  'every  one.  Perfection  must  be  of  moral  harmony  ;  the  per- 
fection of  evil  is  like  a  glass,  full  of  emptiness.  In  practice  and 
morality,  the  one  changes  circumstances,  tlie  other  changes  the  will 
and  causes  harmony.  As  the  wicked  perfect  evil,  they  deserve  blame  ; 
their  perfection  is  tlie  greatest  imperfection.  Imperfection  may  be  in 
ethical  insight  or  in  will — either  without  the  other  is  imperfect  and 
unethical. 

Blind  obedience  is  will  without  insight,  unintelligible  and  unfree  ; 
tyranny  alone  demands  it.  .  Strength  and  power  are  differentiated 
thus:  as  the  former  works,  the  latter  rules;  one  is  mechanical,  tiie 
other  ethical.  Ideas  have  no  strength,  are  not  strong — but  they  may 
have  power.  For  the  idea  of  perfection,  they  reach  the  grade  of  the 
jJDwer  \^-hich  the  ethical  insight  has  over  the  will.  The  power  of 
ethical  insight  over  bodily  powers  forms  the  moral  character.  Perfec- 
tion is  proportionate  to  tlie  love  of  goodness — the  perfect  man  works 
for  moral  ends  with  all  his  powers,  he  seeks  for  opportunities,  and 
brings  others  to  morality.  The  intensity  of  the  love  for  the  moral  is 
the  full  power  of  the  rule  of  ethical  iiisiglit  over  the  will.  This  in- 
sight must  be  broadened  and  intensified.  Thought  and  doing  are 
higlier  forms  of  benevolence — e.  g.,  the  advance  from  caring  for  the 
individual  sick  to  the  building  of  hospitals,  etc.  This  idea  rules  the 
understanding  for  correct  judgment  and  methods,  industry,  order,  etc. 
Not  character  alone  is  furthered  by  the  idea  of  perfection,  but  indi- 
vidual character.  "That  is  like  him,"  should  be  said  of  each  and  all. 
Any  dogma  that  is  ethical  must  not  oppose  what  morality  sets  up. 
"God  alone  is  Lord  in  heaven  and  on  earth  "  means  the  good,  the 
moral,  is  the  only  power  by  which  human  life  is  regulated — and  there 
is  no  consideration  of  paradise  or  hell  (Ps.  Ixxiii,  25).  Progression  or 
retrogression  expresses  merely  the  relation,  progress  is  relative.  Ethi- 
cal insight  should  grow  in  loftiness  of  ideas  and  all  clearness  of  view, 
in  rule  over  the  will — the  means  of  presentation  and  morality  should 
grow,  just  as  physical  means  increase  in  the  technique  of  art.  The 
means  of  presentation  of  morality  is  as  a  whole  called  culture  or  civ- 
ilization. All  should  work  morally  to  further  the  rule  of  the  intelligi- 
ble spirit.  Helping  others  is  morality.  The  development  of  language 
and  writing,  the  telegraph,  the  railroad,  science — all  are  aids  to  this 
end.      What  is  the  Intelligible  Rule?     Its  first  element  is  a  seli'-con- 


1  'S6  ETHICS. 

scions,  free  ^^pirir,  dealing  with  all  the  aetivily  of  thought.  By  it  only 
Ave  live  a  spiritual  life.  It  is  the  objective  morality  of  the  highest 
thought  of  man,  and  its  real  deed,  its  absolute  and  highest  worth. 
Man  enters  it,  not  by  fate,  as  he  enters  nature,  but  by  liis  nioial 
activity.  Science  and  labor  assume  a  new  meaning.  Man  perfects 
nature  by  cultivation  fPs.  viii).  The  unified  product  of  ihe  human 
race  is  the  combination  of  subjective  morality  and  the  objective  moral 
regulation  of  the  world.  Ideas  are  the  forces  working  in  and  behind 
all — they  become  objective  as  realized  in  each. 

PART  II.   PRESENTATION  OF  IDEAS  OR  THE  FORMS  OF  NEW  LIFE. 

Morality,  like  the  soul,  is  in  every  body;  the  upbuilding  of 
morality  is  our  highest  good  and  our  solemn  duty.  Desire  is  the  feel- 
ing of  power,  and  spirit  has  no  other  possession  than  activity.  The 
house,  state,  etc.,  are  the  establishments  of  morality;  are  objective 
morality,  established    by  moral   work,  and    make   moral    life   possible. 

The  Family  cukI  the  Home. — The  home  is  the  moral  cell,  the 
smallest  structure  of  the  moral  organism,  its  heart  and  jmlse,  the  hearth 
of  benevolence.  Marriage  forms  the  smallest  community.  "It  is 
not  good  for  man  to  be  alone;  "  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  be  good, 
true,  fully  human  alone.  There  are  foui-  principal  tendencies  of 
morality — benevolence  and  gratitute,  right  and  du^y.  In  true  mai'- 
riage  these  melt  imperceptibly  into  one  another;  their  claim  is  grant- 
ing, their  granting  is  the  claim.  It  is  one  life  divided  intu  two  per- 
sons. The  two  concerned  first  know  each  other  in  married  life.  They 
grow'  toward  resemblance  in  character,  temperament,  habit,  and  even 
in  appearance.  The  ])assion  of  youth  is  soon  over,  fuinishiug  no  in- 
spiration. Passion  does  not  make  the  exact  choice — "  only  thee  and 
none  other."  The  happy  man  or  woman  tries  to  be  woi'thy  of  his  cr 
her  happiness ;  the  unhappy  one  searches  for  the  defect  and  ti-ies  to 
remedy  it.  Divorce  is  the  most  sorrowful  of  necessities  if  the  ethical 
entl  of  marriage  is  impos.sible — if  moral  generaluess  and  geneial 
morality  can  not  be  established.  Children  give  to  marriage  a  wider, 
moral  ta.sk — make  the  full  ethical  school  of  life.  Duty  is  proportion- 
ate to  education  both  for  {)arents  and  the  community.  The  first 
human,  moi'al  feeling  of  the  child  is  gratitude.  The  more  feeling 
l)ond  is  between  child  and  mother;  the  more  earnest  l)etween  child 
and  father. 

The  relations  between  brothers  and  sisters  are  a  most  impm-tant 
source  of  development,  a  i)reparation  for  life.  The  idea  of  right  is 
freely  developed ;  partiality  does  notarou.se  jealousy,  but  a  sense  of 
Avrong. 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF    I'ROF.    IIEYMANN    STEINTIIAL.  lo7 

Labor,  though  mechanical,  prepares  for  tlie  ethical.  Prudence 
distinguishes  men  from  animals.  It  is  derived  from  labor,  as  is  breadth 
of  view.  A  man's  occupation  has  considerable  influence  in  forming 
his  character;  a  farmer  is  apt  to  be  higher  morally  than  a  shepherd 
or  hunter.  The  last  merely  destroys,  the  second  preserves,  the  first 
produces,  and  from  him  comes  the  division  of  labor,  of  produce,  pro- 
tection, and  tlie  founding  of  a  permanent  home.  At  first  men  sacri- 
ficed to  the  gods  to  gain  their  good  will,  but  as  their  judgment  de- 
veloped (keeping  pace  with  occupation),  they  formed  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  duties  of  benevolence  and  right;  duties  to  God  and  men 
were  considered  as  laws  of  Ood.  The  ideas  of  clothing  and  dwel- 
ling seem  to  have  aroused  the  ethical  ideas  of  shame  and  modesty. 
Man  is  ashamed  to  be  an  animal.  Shame  is  not  foulish  ;  man  is  no 
animal  any  more  than  a  statue  is  a  block  of  stone.  Men  cover  the 
flesh  to  forget  it.  Good  morals  are  a  product  of  shame  and  modesty, 
or  rather  these  are  the  guards  of  morals.  True  speech  is  that  which 
praises  the  good  and  censures  the  bad.  As  physical  existence  is 
necessary  for  ethics,  bodily  purity  is  of  importance  ;  the  shelterless 
iind  unclothed  lack  and  need  morality.  The- house  and  clothes  corre- 
spond to  the  person — show  individuality. 

The  comimmity  and  its  organization  show  moral  tendencies  de- 
veloped from  tlie  home.  It  is  not  a  mere  number  of  houses,  but  a 
unity.  Want  leads  to  labor,  labor  to  the  unifying  of  powers;  new 
wants  are  then  awakened.  Man  is  not  simply  a  pleasure  seeker.  The 
prudent  man  is  never  satisfied,  and  can  always  be  happy,  both  ac- 
cording to  the  idea  of  perfection.  The  source  of  all  advancement  is 
not  the  desire  for  pleasure,  but  for  work.  Where  one  generation  ^the 
parents)  is  satisfied,  the  next  generation  (the  children)  is  dissatisfied. 
History  is  an  account  of  the  self-elevation  of  man  to  constantly  in- 
creasing morality.  As  the  animal  functions  are  developed  to  ever 
higher  activity,  so  are  the  spiritual  powers  ;  there  is  a  sharper  indi- 
vidualization. The  division  of  labor  makes  men  more  dependent  on 
one  another.  Every  series  of  needs  and  activities  is  objective  morality 
constructing  the  rule  of  spiritual  manhood  over  natural  existence. 
Science  is  needed  for  art  and  religion,  industry  and  trade,  forming  the 
perfection  of  labor.  Babylon,  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt  were  first  scientific. 
Science  itself  is  not  moral,  but  the  desire  f  )r  it  is  moral.  Parents, 
teachers,  and  schools  are  needed. for  instruction.  There  should  be  a 
younger  conimiuiity,  while  parental  or  parochial  schools  make  the  dif- 
ferences in  station  too  distinct.  They  should  learn  human  similarity 
and  equality,  and  the  schools  should  give  that  universal  human  and 
practical  religious  teaching  so  much  needed.     The  church  and  school 


138  KTIIICS. 

should  l)c  kept  apart.  Men  are  in  so  I'ar  iiTeligiiHis  as  they  are  ir- 
rational and  benighted.  The  test  of  the  schools  is  in  the  citizens.  Press 
and  libraries  are  needed  for  further  culture. 

Labor. — It  becomes  ethical  by  conscientiousness  alone.  Work  as 
well  as  possible  !  Commerce  works  ethically  in  binding  all  men  together 
for  hoDesty,  the  unity  of  mankind  becomes  an  active  unified  society. 
The  ethical  essence  of  tirade  lies  in  the  confidence  in  honesty.  There 
can  be  uo  busiiiess  without  credit.  Confidence  is  good-willing,  and 
rests  in  doing  what  is  promised,  keeping  faith.  The  settlement  of  debts 
contains  no  ethical  idea  any  more  than  price  ;  it  is  altogether  material 
and  needs  uo  good  will.  Self-preservaticui  is  the  nerve  of  trade.  Trade 
demands  no  deceit.  The  general  interest  must  be  considered  and  uni- 
fied with  self-interest.  Commerce  is  the  most  complex  of  machines, 
demanding  industry,  order,  punctuality,  honesty,  conscientiousness, 
trust,  and  self-sacrifice.  It  is  the  state  of  birth  and  school  of  morality. 
The  ethical  view  of  trade  may  be  thus  stated  :  1.  General  and  private 
interest  may  and  should  coincide.  2.  The  idea  of  self-preservation 
and  satisfaction  do  not  exclude  ethics.  3.  The  ethical  view  of  com- 
merce is  the  generalization  of  self-preservation  and  pleasure  thi"ough 
right  and  truth.     It  becomes  artistic  and  scientific. 

Art  makes  us  see  the  ideal  truth  of  all  appearances,  fi)rces  us  to 
recognize  the  ethical  worth  of  circumstances  in  life  for  the  rule  of 
morality.^  The  artist  has  his  truth  and  objectivity,  his  morality  as  an 
artist.  Music  and  the  drama  influence  the  formal  feeling  and  draw 
us  from  egoistic  interests  toward  interest  in  universal  human  fate. 
Luxury  is  not  the  true  aim  of  art,  but  the  moral  is  ;  it  tries  to  make 
beautiful  the  unfortunate  of  the  earth.  In  public  museums  it  gives 
pleasure  to  all  the  people,  teaching  them  to  love  the  good  and  the  beau- 
tiful ;   this  is  its  true  sphere. 

Relkjion  has  the  highest  place,  and  is  proportionate  to  benevolence, 
righteousness,  honesty,  conscientiousness,  and  truth.  It  is  nothing  or 
all.  Insight  needs  inner  power  (will),  love  for  the  good;  religion  is 
their  inspiriting  for  all  that  is  good,  tnu%  and  beautiful.  This  may 
hold  even  for  atheists,  since  belief  is  only  a  form  of  religion.  When 
we  recognize  the  source  of  goodness,  trutii,  and  beauty  in  God,  re- 
ligion becomes  the  inspiriting  of  man  for  God.  For  the  atheist  it  is 
an  animation  toward  the  "  intelligible  ride  of  all  humanity."  Religion 
is  a  .special  force  in  the  whole  of  ethical  life  and  of  great  power.  The 
religious  community  is  a  union  for  its  end.  Tliere  have  been  errors 
doubtless,  but  the  church  has  done  much  for  morality,  science,  art,  and 
civilization.  It  influences  and  permeates  all  of  life,  the  real  person- 
ality.    It  keeps  us  in  ])urity,  lifts  us  up,  gives  us  power  and  trust  in 


UNIVERSAL   ETHfCS   OF   PROF.    HF.YMANN    STEINTHAL.  139 

tlie  moral  battle  of  life,  trii.sl  in  s:)rn)\v,  moderation  in  joy  and  good 
fortune,  and  tnakes  us  active  in  all  the  affairs  of  life. 

Recreation  is  activity  for  no  end  but  for  itself  Play  is  the 
curse  of  ethical  earnestness  in  life.  It  is  warranted  for  assist injr  the 
recovery  of  the  sick,  or  when  it  is  employed  to  lift  us  to  higher  thousfhts 
(Ex.  xxiii,  1  ;  xxxi,  17).  The  Sabbath  seems  to  be  given  for  spiritual 
recovery. 

State. — Rights  and  duties  are  always  for  euds  in  the  community  ; 
the  state  and  laws  always  for  their  overseeing.  Right  is  tlie  end  of 
the  state,  the  state  is  the  means.  It  must  be  either  a  social  state  or  a 
rights  state.  It  niust  watch  over  and  not  order,  and  should  do  noth- 
ing which  individuals  or  corporations  can  do  well.  That  state  is 
ethically  best  wiiich  furthers  the  morals  of  its  citizens,  whicli  awakes 
all  the  powers  of  the  community  and  gives  every  man  opportunity  ac- 
cording to  his  power.  It  is  ever  striving  to  make  positive  right  ideal. 
There  should  be  an  inner  peace — not  such  as  one  would  break  if  he 
had  the  power.  Control  by  right  means  for  high  ends  is  ethical,  so 
that  a  war  may  be  ethical.  The  state  has  botii  the  duty  and  right  of 
compulsion.  The  good  citizen  must  obey  laws,  even  those  that  he 
considers  bad.  The  Citizen  has  the  right  to  life,  even  as  an  unborn 
child — the  right  also  to  nurture  and  education.  The  child  has  the 
right  to  prove  himself  moral,  by  bringing  himself  to  etiiical  activity. 
It  is  moral  to  consider  a  person  as  a  person,  not  as  a  thief;  each  must 
judge  the  other  ethically  as  a  member  of  the  state  ;  lies  are  outlawed, 
there  is  harmony  between  the  person  and  society.  The  citizen  is  a 
free  person,  sacred  in  thought  and  religion,  free  for  union  and  free  in 
speech.  Foolishness  is  sufficient  punishment  of  the  fool.  Freedom  of 
speech  and  press  give  religious  freedom.  Besides,  he  has  the  right  to 
the  choice  of  home,  of  wife,  and  of  representatives.  The  duties  cor- 
responding to  these  rights  are  those  of  obedience  to  law  and  payment 
of  taxes.  The  schools  should  teach  these  duties  and  also  admiration 
of  the  state.  National  unity  comes  from  the  equal  ensouling  of  all 
society;  the  same  well-wishing,  feeling  of  duty,  and  consciousness  of 
right,  taste  for  the  beautiful,  sense  of  truth,  eff  )rts  f  )r  good.  The 
similarity  of  ethical  ideas  in  individuals  forms  a  harmonious  figure  of 
all  national  life.  The  unity  of  national  spirit  finds  ex()ression  in  its 
classic  literature. 

Property  is  ethically  indifferent.  Occupation  or  possession  signifies 
a  relation  of  person  and  thing.  Property  is  a  relation  of  a  person  to  a 
community  in  regard  to. a  thing.  The  right  to  property  is  only  con- 
ditional, and  tlip  common  weal  takes  precedence  of  right  to  property. 


140  ETHICS. 

All  pro])erty  is  only  a  fee,  of  which  the  community  is  feudal  lord. 
The  ground  of  property  is  labor;   what  a  man  produces  is  his. 

Excursus  on  Socialism. — It  may  be  traced  historically  from  Thomas 
More.  Things  are  of  no  value,  save  as  supplying  a  demand,  through 
labor  and  difficulty  of  jiroduction  or  talent  needed.  The  worth  can 
not  be  paid,  as  ideal  only  pays  for  ideal.  There  is  no  difference 
whether  the  state  or  individual  pays  in  money  or  material.  There  is 
no  ethical  activity  as  to  mine  and  thine,  no  opportunity  for  objective 
right,  no  opportunity  for  benev(;lence  in  material  Socialism.  He  will 
breathe  a  purer  spiritual  air  witiiout  egoism.  Man  does  not  change 
his  nature,  but  his  circumstances  in  higher  socialism.  The  amount 
paid  for  a  great  work  buys  ink  and  paper;  appreciation  is  the  real 
payment ;  science  will  be  helped.  There  will  be  no  weakening  of  the 
])o\vers  of  genius  by  need.  The  socialistic  tendency  of  human  life  is 
an  ideal  to  be  desired  ethically.  1.  No  moral  consistency  may  be  in- 
tentionally destroyed  ;  immorality  destroys  itself.  Socialism  is  not  to 
be  made,  but  is  to  born  of  society.  It  is  not  a  mere  question  of 
clothes.  2.  State  socialism  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  It  should  be 
a  free  community  of  citizens,  and  should  flow  from  our  free  united  life. 
3.  It  is  no  self-delusion,  no  mistaking  c^f  the  present,  no  false  hope  for 
the  future.  The  future  will  grow  from  the  present;  all  good  tends  to 
this  end.  Absolute  equality  is  foolishness.  Be  free  witiiin,  despise 
vanities,  fight  distress,  are  the  watch-woi'ds. 

Eelutio7is  between  Persons  should  be  actuated  by  sympathy  fii-st, 
by  well-wisliing  afterward.  Those  between  master  and  servant  are  in 
the  department  of  right,  not  good-will.  Conscientiousness  is  a  neces- 
sary' quality  of  service,  whether  recognized  or  not.  Honor  seems  to 
l)e  needed  for  merchant,  mechanic,  and  citizen,  as  well  as  the  ideal  of 
faithfulness  and  skill.  Consideration  for  the  rights  of  others  is  also 
commendable  and  necessary,  as  evinced  in  giving  I'ooin  on  the  street, 
or  a])ology  for  unintentional  injury.  The  ethical  idea  of  friendship  is 
strengthened  by  jiutting  aside  the  ego.  Careless  criticism  of  another 
is  unethical :  gossip  is  not  even  criticism.  Well-wishing  should  not 
e.xpect  gratitude.  Gratitude  is  good-will  for  good-wdl  and  a  good  deed, 
while  envy  needs  no  deed. 

The  two  Sexes. — Tiiough  woman  may  not  etpial  man  in  bodily  or 
spiritual  strength,  yet  nniny  women  surpass  many  men,  though  their 
j)ower  is  not  alike  in  quality  on  account  of  the  differing  organs  through 
which  the  strength  works.  She  has  a  peculiar  spiritual  j)lace,  and 
a])plies  general  ethics  well.  Tiic  male  and  female  spirit  are  mutually 
supplementary.  She  ha<  thr  smaller  and  ]u-obably  finer  brain  ;  her 
power  is  smaller  and  weaker,  but  fine;    num".-  is   hirge  and  strong,  but 


UNIVEIISAL    ETHICS    OV    I'ltOl".     IIFA-MANN    STEINTIIAL.  141 

coarse.  She  is  the  more  sharply  indivitliiali/.ed.  It  is  unethical  to 
consider  wonian  as  a  slave.  Tlie  realm  of  ideas  is  divided  betweeu 
man  and  woman.  ^Iarria<:e  is  the  feelini;  of  individuality  in  the  in- 
dividuality of  another.  Monogamy  is  the  only  moral  form  of  living 
together.  Free  love  is  not  free,  because  liberty  is  not  the  right  to 
wish  different  things  at  different  moments.  Love  is  tlie  fniit  of  moral 
effort  and  labor.  ^lan  and  woman  are  alike  designed  for  marriaire, 
which  means  personal  surrender.  No  socialism  can  put  aside  mar- 
riage. The  child  needs  love  most  in  its  In-inging  up,  and  the  mother 
undertands  this  well.  It  would  be  the  destruction  of  family  life  for 
man  and  woman  to  have  the  same  work  to  do.  ]Man  works  with  his 
arms  and  hands,  woman  with  her  fingers  ;  she  becomes  a  good  teacher 
only  by  womanliness.  We  need  first  healthy  mothers,  not  weakened 
by  attempts  at  philosophic  thinking.  Her  thinking  is  intuitional; 
man's  logical  ;  her  sphere,  purification.  Woman  is  not  limited  to  the 
home,  but  has  an  equal  right  in  society.  She  purifies  the  home  and 
human  intercourse.  She  compels  the  observance  of  the  social  rules. 
While  rigbteousness  seems  to  be  the  natural  principle  of  man,  benevo- 
lence belongs  to  woman  ;  she  is  and  should  be  foremost  in  charitable 
work. 

Cu^pr (78. —The  criminal  should  surrender  himself  and  repay  the 
community,  but  (ethically)  the  community  should  not  exact  payment. 
The  state  as  society  must  remember  well-wishing.  Capital  punish- 
ment is  useless ;   but  as  long  as  man  holds  it  to  be  necssary,  it  is  so. 

Our  Dead. — The  corpse  should  be  considered,  like  the  picture  of 
of  the  man  when  living;   we  should  respect  it  for  what  it  has  held. 

Remarks. — Exert  yourself  to  carry  out  the  good  even  against  the 
will  of  others,  but  with  good  will  and  persuasion,  not  force.  Our 
duties  are  empirix^ally  given,  not  luhat,  but  hoiv  is  ethical.  Good  con- 
sists simply  in  the  harmony  of  ideas.  A  system  of  ethics  can  not 
cover  every  incident  in  life,  but  man  should  be  prudent,  examine  his 
powers  and  limitations,  and  help  on  the  good.  Are  there  higher  and 
lower  duties  ?  Yes,  there  is  a  system  of  ends  forming  the  "  Intelligible 
Kingdom."  By  system  and  hjve  the  small  may  become  great;  there- 
fore, the  small  is  not  to  be  neglected.  Kevolution  or  well-wishing  by 
dynamite  is  an  ethical,  logical  impossibility;  it  is  ethical  disharmony. 
Without  the  transmutation  of  formal  feeling  into  pathologic  feeling, 
there  can  be  no  good.     The  end  does  not  justify  the  means. 

PART    Iir.       THE    rSYCIIOLO(;ICAL    MECHANISM    OF    ETHICAL    TKOCESSES. 

The  wdiole  moral  condition  of  men  is  a  completely  determined 
product  of   nature.     Mind  is  dependent   upon   body,   for  man    sees 


142  ETHICS. 

through  tlie  eyes,  thinks  througli  tl)e  brain.  As  the  central  organ 
(^brain  and  spine)  works  througli  nerves  on  other  parts  of  the  body, 
so  does  the  soul  work  through  the  body  on  the  outer  world.  Sensory, 
sympathetic,  and  motor  nerves  are  the  ground  elements  of  our  soul- 
life.  Consciousness  and  the  unity  of  our  sensations  are  regulated  by 
certain  laws.  The  sympathetic  nerves  convey  sensations  of  health  or 
sickness  ;  feeling  and  perception  lead  to  motion,  then  this  same  motion 
becomes  feeling  and  perception.  ^lovements  may  be  thus  divided  : 
1.  Movements  following  bodily  feeling.  2.  Imitating  perceptions 
arousing  movements.  o.  Spiritual  feelings  causing  movements. 
4.  Perceptions  arousing  actions,  seizure,  keeping  time,  etc.  5.  Re- 
production of  feelings  may  cause  reproduction  of  movements. 
6.  Imitative  actions.  7.  Volitional  actions.  The  first  three  are 
called  reflex-unvolitional,  the  three  latter  impulse  actions.  The  will 
is  also  a  spiritual  impulse.  Reflex  and  impulse  actions  are  teachers 
of  the  will — show  w^hat  may  be  willed,  as  does  a  teacher  or  instructor. 
Memliers  may  incite  to  actions,  either  of  fear  or  bravery,  witness  a 
panic  or  an  assault.  Suggestion  by  example  is  almost  overpowering, 
even  compelling  murder  in  certain  cases.  Within  the  presentation 
lies  a  strong  impulse  for  the  will,  a  motor  power.  Man  leaves  the 
animal  impulses  behind  by  soul  development.  Motive  and  resolution 
must  accompany  the  deed  to  its  conclusion,  while  the  animal  merely 
seeks  food.  A  natural  aid  to  the  will  lies  in  the  law  that  repetition 
of  activity  makes  dexterity  or  habit.  Halnts  make  tendencies  or  in- 
clinations, of  which  the  noblest  is  love. 

Prudence  and  Will. — Herder  called  prudence  the  distinctive 
mark  of  man.  It  is  the  checking  of  inclinations  or  impulses.  By 
prudence  spirit  is  made  lord  of  the  l)ody  and  nature.  Culture  is  the 
instrument  by  which  we  control  the  feelings.  Muscular  i-cflex-action 
is  controlled  by  will-action.  The  uneducated  can  read  letters  aloud  only. 
We  need  prudence  and  self-control.  Prudence  is  reached  by  atten- 
tion, labor  and  will, directed  to  presentations,  e.  g.,  tone-production  by 
a  singer.  He  who  reflects,  acts  prudently.  The  immoral  must  not  be 
yielded  to,  even  in  part,  or  reflex  movements  may  compel  action  in 
weak  moments. 

Freedom  and  Culture. — Freedom  is  no  psychologic  fact.  Health 
of  soul  is  distinct  from  it.  It  may  be  asked,  why  be  the  slave  of  mo- 
rality and  not  of  desire  or  pa.ssion.  Man  must  be  bodily  sound  to  be 
free,  l)Ut  it  must  be  in  moral  society.  Freedom  presupposes  spiritual 
health,  wliilc  the  most  talented  may  be  the  greatest  scoundrels.  That 
freedom  mean.s  that  man  is  free  from  something  is  not  the  real  signifi- 
cation,    liut  philologically,  from  its  root  meaning,  free  means  beauti- 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF    PROF.    IlEYMANN    STEINTIIAL.  143 

ful,  lovely.    There  are  five  classes  of  freedom.     1.  Mechanical  rreedom 
from  bonds  or  chains.     Beino;  according  to  law,  is  freedon) ;   it  is'  not 
slavery  that  we  can  not  fly.     2.  Physiologic  freedom,  according  to  the 
laws  of  body,  no  illness.     3.  Psychologic  freedom,  according  to  the  laws 
of  mind,  consciousness  clear.      4.   Free  citizenship  ;   free  from  unlawful 
checks.     5.   Moral  freedom  ;   free  from  selfishness  and  [)assion  ;   bound 
to  the  furthering  of  morality.     We  may  be  free  in  wishes,  but  not  in 
will.     We  should  not  want  the  false,  the  untrue,  the  immoral.     The 
spirit  is  bound  by  unculture  ;   freedom  is  the  synonym  of  morality.     It 
is  no  power,  but  a  category  of  the  judgment.     Rightly  do  we  terra  the 
spirit  a  free  power,  although  dependent  on  tlie  body,  and  always  de- 
termined, for  freedom  is  the  rule  of  the  spirit  over  the  body  and  mat- 
ter.    It  works  not  without  brain,  but  in  no  way  through  it.     How  free 
we  are  in  dealing  with  abstract  thoughts!     Freedom  is  a  psychologic 
power.     We  define  it,  "  Determinateness  of  our  psychical   and   cor- 
poreal powers,  through  moral  motives,  by  ethical  ideas."     Thought  is 
willed  ;  as  opposed  to  presentation,  it  is  free  and  comparable  to  artistic 
culture.     The  determination  of  presentations  is  the  mechanical  founda- 
tion of  freedom,  the  ethical  giouj)  of  ideas  being  predominant.     It  is 
our  duty  by  culture  and  training  to  enlarge  freedom.     Freedom   is 
only  relative— is  to  be  constantly  developed.     It  is  autonomous,  not 
capricious  or  heteronomous,  the  worm  of  our  well-being  dictated  from 
without.     The  motor  force  of  ideas  depending  on  the  feeling  can  be 
checked.     Freedom  by  inner  necessity  and  the  consciousness  that  this 
necessity  flows  from  known  eternal  law,  which  is  held  as  our  innermost 
peculiar  essence  and  our  highest  power,  forms  the  moral  autonomous 
character. 

Character  is  a  determined  habit,  facility  and  sureness  in  the  willing 
itself.  Maxims,  laws,  traits  of  character,  express  the  moral  ideal.  A 
complete  man  is  he  whose  will,-  feelings  and  thoughts  are  actuated  by 
ethical  motives.     Every  deed  is  then  moral  and  every  thought  a  deed. 

PART    IV.       THE    ETHICAL    VIEW    OF   THE    WORLD. 

We  now  need  a  broader  statement,  found  in  the  combination  of  all 
the  preceding.  The  mortal  and  the  absolute  soul,  according  to  meta- 
physics, is  not  ethical.  Theological  ethics  treats  of  the  relations  be- 
tween God  and  man,  phih)Sophic  of  tliose  between  man  and  man,  e.  g., 
not  marriage  itself,  but  tlie  form  thereof,  may  be  civil  or  church. 
According  to  philosophic  ethics  it  is  no  sacrament,  but  a  moral  good. 
The  grave  or  the  church  is  consecrated  by  feeling.  Ethics  knows  no 
sins,  only  bad  or  blameworthy  acts. 

I.   Nature  and  Moral  Spirit. — Accident  is  tlie  contradiction  of  will- 


144  ETHICS. 

iug  a  conscious  end — the  all  is  worthless  (mechanical)  save  as  through 
us  and  our  morality.  Shapes  and  forms  are  ever  changing — nature  is 
au  endless  sea  of  restless  matter.  In  the  struggle  for  existence  as 
many  fixed  kinds  of  forms  or  types  as  possible  are  formed  in  the  sea 
of  matter  and  force.  There  is  no  rnd  in  the  mechanism  of  the  uni- 
verse— earth  was  not  huilt  for  man,  hut  is  purposeless — nor  were 
plants  for  animals,  or  vice  versa.  Man  brings  purpose  into  the  world — 
he  saw  the  light  and  it  was  color  and  harmony. 

II.  The  Cosmos. — The  true,  beautiful  and  good.  These  three  ideas 
are  the  star  builders  in  the  heaven  of  humanity.  Art  raises  us  above 
egoistic,  material  pleasui-es.  The  artist  makes  us  see  nature  without 
fear;  we  gain  an  ideal  feeling.  The  feelings  are  purified  by  art;  but, 
while  the  artistic  sense  is  limited,  goodness  is  for  all  and  is  the  duty  of 
each.  Truth  and  art  are  more  external — fjoodness  is  onlv  within. 
Througii  his  will  man  is  good — it  is  Jie.  Knowledge  and  art  are  de- 
pendent upon  it.  Yet  all  are  diflx^rent  ;  they  form  the  three  sides  of 
the  idea  of  humanity. 

Scientific  knowledge  is  the  prerequisite.  We  make  the  all  as  we 
tlilnk  it.  Wo  need  the  conceptions  of  order,  necessity,  connection  and 
eternity  to  give  symmetry  to  all.  Appearances  are  conditioned  liv, 
and  Cf)rrespond  to,  realities.  The  si)ii-it  is  an  appearance  or  the  place 
of  appearances.  The  thing  is  true  if  the  spirit  is  truthful.  (We  are 
daily  less  and  less  frightened  by  accidents.  Industry  is  moral.)  We 
feel  truth  as  beauty  through  ai't :  it  presents  the  ideas  of  nature,  of 
history,  of  spiritual  life.  Spirit,  humanity,  idea,  morality,  are  syn- 
onymous, iill  tending  toward  the  perfection  of  spirit.  Life  is  moral. 
All  culture  and  civilization  c;intain  th(,'  idea  of  perfection  ;  the  higher 
these  are,  the  higher  the  grade  of  morality.  ]Man  is  true,  as  moral 
motives  underly  knowledge,  feeling  and  will.  The  development  for 
intelligible  rule  is  a  hjfty  idea,  and  while  purely  a  formal  feeling,  the 
feeling  of  religion  is  sublitne.  It  is  not  the  mother  of  all  moral  feel- 
ings (ideas),  but  includes  th(in  all.  It  is  another  expression  for  the 
idea  of  perfection. 

III.  The  Rule  of  the  Litelligible  or  Objective  Spirit. — Truth,  the 
eternal  ideas  and  laws  ;ire  not  in  tlie  objects,  but  in  mind  or  spirit. 
They  are  in  tin;  state  of  work  and  birth  of  ideas.  The  soul  is  in 
neither  space  nor  time.  As  the  spirit  works  in  individuals  it  is  called 
.sul)jective ;  in  concept,  picture,  and  deed,  it  is  olyective.  As  the 
wood  is  a  table,  it  is  si)irit.  The  outer  half  of  each  separate  subject  is 
an  objective  spirit,  as  the' sum  and  system  of  the  objects  of  combined 
subjective  spirits  which  have  lived.  This  is  our  morals,  laws,  and  re- 
ligions :  The  objective  spirit   rules  ami    makes   the  sui)jective.     The 


UNIVERSAL    ETHICS    OF    PKOK.    IIEYMANN    STEINTHAL.  145 

subject  is  bound  up  in  the  present  condition  of  oljjectiv^e  spirit.  An- 
cient heroes  would  be  as  children  to-day.  The  objective  spirit  is  the 
medium  of  life  (the  air)  for  the  spirit  of  the  subject.  The  joint  (nni- 
versal)  spirit  is  the  sum  of  all  the  united  spirits  of  all  nations  and  all 
time.  Objective  spirit  grows  out  of  itself.  It  makes  ever  new  pre- 
sentations. The  objective  spirit  is  the  historical  human  rule  of  the  in- 
telligible, the  place  of  ideas  and  of  all  truth,  beauty  and  goodness, — 
the  medinin  of  life  for  the  subject,  the  everlasting  environment  and 
content  of  all  being  and  doing, — the  developed  content  of  mind  (of 
morality  and  humanity). 

IV.  People — Humaniiy. — The  spirit  of  a  people  is  objectified  or 
coi'porealized  in  institutions  and  churches,  in  their  common  language 
and  labor,  their  literature  and  art.  Mankind  is  a  mere  abstract  con- 
cept,— there  is  no  real  unity,  as  there  should  be.  It  should  form  an 
organism  with  the  nations  as  organs.  The  beginning  has  been  made 
in  the  laws  of  war,  in  international  postal  laws.  Peace  should  be 
furthered  by  ethics.  A  real  worthy  form  of  moral  life  is  needed  for 
the  enrichment  of  humanity.  Nations  are  too  egoistic.  They  seek 
power,  and  patriotism  is  made  the  opposite  of  humanity  instead  of  its 
synonym.  Peoples  make  history,  and  history  makes  peoples, — and  the 
objective  spirit  of  mankind  is  the  all  real.  We  give  thanks  to  the 
dead  for  what  they  have  given  to  us,  by  working  for  posterity.  Mo- 
rality is  a  historical  product;  the  spiritual  instinct  is  therefore  spirit, 
because  it  develops  in  history. 

V.  Tlie  Lidividual — The  Ideal,  its  Power  and  Actual ity  ;  The  Ideal 
and  its  Realization. — Individual  spirit  is  the  active  principle.  Ideas 
are  ideal,  but  lack  power,  and  the  objective  spirit  is  a  material  mechan- 
ism— the  individual  can  be  an  ideal  man.  Through  a  right  deed  the 
subject  makes  objective  right,  ideal  actuality.  The  ethical  institu- 
tions, marriage,  home,  union,  state  became  alive  through  the  individ- 
ual. The  individual  is  the  point  at  which  ideal  spirit  becomes  open 
and  energetic,  and  the  same  is  true  of  society.  It  is  our  duty  through 
the  united  spirit  to  present  ourselves  as  spirits.  JNIan  is  a  product  not 
of  nature,  but  of  morality.  He  is  the  real  ethical  life.  He  owes  all 
to  the  common  spirit.  Be  real,  perfect  thyself.  This  duty  is  his  in- 
telligible being.  The  common  spirit  is  himself — as  he  owes  all  to  the 
common  spirit  he  should  be  humble.  Therefore  he  should  so  conduct 
himself  that  others  will  honor  the  spirit  in  him.  He  should  preserve 
himself  for  others  ;   care  for  himself  and  serve  the  community  thereby. 

VI.  Sorrow  and  Desire — Evil  and  Good  Conscience — The  Obliga- 
tion to  Morality. — The  good  is  not  what  we  are  ready  to  desire.     It  is 

10 


146  ETHICS. 

useful,  but  not  all  that  is  useful  is  good.  Good  music  is  not  merely 
that  which  gives  pleasure.  Joy  is  not  the  good,  nor  pain.  Hold  the 
mind  and  heart  open  for  the  true,  the  good,  and  the  beautiful, — and 
have  the  hand  ready  with  love  ;  assist  the  sorrowing.  Natural  wick- 
edness and  evil  are  accidental,  so  is  desire.  Some  men,  like  animals, 
seek  pleasure  and  flee  from  pain,  but  ethical  conscience  must  come 
into  play.  We  should  give  pleasure  to  others  by  our  labor.  Why  is 
it  good  to  further  the  health  and  joy  of  others?  Joy  is  the  symptom 
of  health.  The  highest  morality  is  to  elevate  the  morality  of  others. 
Each  in  ease  has  more  power  for  morality.  Therefore  advance  the  in- 
telligible life  and  joy  will  follow.  Pain  does  not  make  us  unworthy 
or  worthy.     If  we  look  into  the  intelligible  we  must  choose  morality. 

VII.  The  I  and  Self,  We — Accountahilitij  and  ResponsibHttij. — The 
I,  self  is  to  be  developed.  Every  man  has  his  own  world.  I  am  I 
and  my  world.  The  I  or  self  is  the  real  back-ground  of  our  freedom. 
The  immoral  are  without  the  ethical  ego,  witiiout  character  or  aim, 
and  being  bad  is  only  negative,  destructive.  We  is  the  consciousness 
of  a  number  of  heads,  or  ethically,  of  the  might  of  ideas,  and  we  is 
the  objective  spirit.  Therefore  there  is  one  we— spirit  of  mankind. 
We  attribute  no  J  to  the  wicked  (ethically),  but  the  judicial  finds  re- 
sponsibility in  all.  JMorality  is  teachable  and  learnable  like  mathe- 
matics, according  to  capacity.  The  cultured  possess  morality  of  a 
higher  order  than  the  uncultured,  and  repetition  is  the  best  training. 
The  idea  of  perfection  contains  the  command  to  watch  ourselves.  No 
one  may  say  that  he  can  not  learn  morals.  This  is  the  basis  of  respon- 
sibility.    Freedom  rests  on  health,  but  is  only  accompanied  by  it. 

No  one  should  say  that  he  has  had  no  chance  to  be  free.  Free- 
dom, morality,  should  be  reckoned  as  the  deed  and  self  creation  of  a 
person.  The  moral  character  is  always  humble.  A  man  should  not 
excuse  himself  for  debasement,  as  he  has  the  power  of  self-elevation. 
As  the  I  benefits  the  we,  "as  they  deal  morally  with  one  another, 
they  thank  the  we,  humanity,  and  mankind,  out  of  which  they  were 
bodily  and  spiritually  born." 

Thus  have  we  I'ollowed  tiie  outline  of  the  system  of  ethics  pro- 
pounded by  a  Jewish  philosopher — and  these  ethics  are  the  ethics  of 
Judaism.  His  frequent  references  to  the  Bible  show  whence  he  drew 
the  basic  principles  of  his  system,  as  lofty  as  true,  as  universal  a  pre- 
sentation as  can  be  conceived  to-day.  We  nuiy  well  be  glad  that  we 
can  count  so  clear  a  thinker,  so  profound  a  philosopher  as  Dr.  Hey- 
mann  Steinthal  among  the  firm  adherents  to  our  inspired  and  inspiring 
faith,  the  religion  of  the  Jews. 


REVERENCE    AND    KATIOXALISM.  147 


REVERENCE  AND  RATIONALISM. 

Bv  MAT'HICK  H.   HARRIS,  A.  M..  I'lI.D. 


In  the  Hebrew  toucjiie  we  have  but  one  word  for  reverence  aud 
fear,  and  in  all  languages  we  seem  to  use  the  words  interchangeably- 
Where  does  the  fear  that  is  terror  leave  off,  and  the  fear  that  is  rever- 
ence begin?  Terror  seemed  to  be  the  chief  element  in  the  beginnings 
of  all  religious.  For  fear  is  the  child  of  ignorance,  and  knowing 
nothing,  primitive  man  feared  all  things.  Nature  and  God  were  not 
then  two  distinct  ideas,  but  all  the  forces  and  phenomena  of  nature 
were  conscious  beings  that  could  help,  but  that  also  might  injure.  The 
tempest  was  a  devouring  dragon,  an  eclipse  was  the  moon  pursued 
by  blood-hounds,  the  rainbow  was  a  serpent,  and  sickness  was  "pos- 
sessed of  demons."  Every  stock  and  every  stone  had  its  indwelling 
spirit  that  would  wreak  vengeance  if  not  appeased.  ^Nlan  himself 
could  enter  into  leagues  with  these  imps  of  darkness  through  witch- 
craft, necromancy,  and  the  evil  eye  to  cast  blight  upon  his  fellows. 

But  as  experimental  knowledge  began  to  prove  these  fears  ground- 
less— they  may  have  been  succeeded  by  a  higher  sensation — awe — which 
is  a  supreme  admiration  mingled  with  mystery  for  that  which  is  be- 
yond us,  but  a  glimpse  of  whose  glory  we  already  see.  Fear  pictures 
the  unknown  as  terrible,  awe  pictures  the  unknown  as  sublime,  but  char- 
acter as  well  as  knowledge  decides  the  difference  of  sensation. 

The  Hebrew  Psalmists  looked  upon  nature  from  its  sublime  side, 
not  from  its  terrible  side,  to  them  "  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of 
God." 

Religion  is  sometimes  defined  as  our  conception  of  the  universe — 
Weltanschauung.  But  cold  scientific  observation  does  not  become 
religion  until  translated  into  the  language  of  tlie  soul,  it  distills 
througli  the  feelings  as  reverential  awe.  It  needs  that  touch  of  emo- 
tion of  which  Matthew  Arnold  speaks.  The  heavens  do  not  declare 
the  glory  of  God  to  every  body.  Our  impressions  are  susceptible 
rather  than  objective  ;  they  reflect  the  self  within  rather  than  the  world 
without.  Some  remain  cold  and  unmoved  before  majestic  scenery 
that  would  thrill  and  inspire  others.  While  a  man  of  vivid  imagina- 
tion and  strong  emotion  looks  up  to  the  stars  studding  the  blue  vault 
of  Heaven  and  thinking  of  their  distance  and  their  magnitude,  of  the 


148  ETHICS. 

siius  that  are  beyoud  them  and  the  forces  that  maintain  them,  the 
grandeur  of  the  universe  overwhelms  him  and  he  feels  uplifted  in 
holy  ecstasy. 

I  think  we  may  say,  without  laying  ourselves  open  to  the  charge 
of  glorification  of  our  own,  that  the  controlling  influence  in  Judaism 
has  never  been  fear,  but  always  reverence.  Hell  has  never  played 
any  figure  in  Jewish  theology.  A  Jewish  Dante  would  be  as  unthink- 
able as  a  Jewish  John  Ward,  preacher.  And  while  the  Rabbis 
did  not  deny  Gehinnora,  they  always  touched  upon  it  half  playfully. 
While  if  a  modern  Rabbi,  however  orthodox,  were  to  dwell  on  the 
to/tiires  of  the  damned,  he  would  either  expose  himself  to  ridicule  or 
be  censured  for  preaching  not  so  much  against  the  doctrine  as  against 
the  genius  of  the  Jewish  religion. 

I  think  the  key  to  our  faith  is  rather  found  in  the  injunction,  "  Ye 
shall  reverence  my  sanctuary."  This  command  is  not  exclusive,  but 
intensive,  tlie  Sanctuary  being  the  center  of  worship,  the  school  of 
modern  education,  the  home  of  religion,  or  even  a  fine  meraphor  for 
religion  in  general.  "The  heaven  is  my  throne  and  the  earth  is  my 
footstool,  where  is  there  a  house  that  ye  can  build  unto  me  and  where 
is  the  place  of  my  rest?"  Tlie  universe  is  the  House  of  God.  Natural 
laws  are  throne  laws,  the  book  of  nature  is  the  Word  of  God.  Those 
whq  do  not  recognize  God  outside  the  Sanctuary  can  not  hope  to  meet 
Him  within  it. 

Now,  while  none  have  understood  this  better  than  our  own  ances- 
tors, since  they  took  special  pride  in  remiudiug  themselves  that  tlie 
Synagogue  was  not  consecrated  ground,  that  any  meeting  place  with 
ten  worshipers  became  a  House  of  God,  still,  we  too  have  made  the 
mistake  of  restricting  our  reverence  to  tiie  tangible  sanctuary,  and 
giving  to  this  behest  a  mechanical  obedience  by  fulfilling  it  oidy 
in  external  demonstration  and  artificial  formula.  Not  that  we  can 
doubt  for  a  moment  the  sincerity  of  reverence  expressed  as  cere- 
monial, but  we  must  not  confuse  it  with  the  feeling  of  reverence 
itself  liemoving  the  shoes  becau.se  the  ground  is  holy,  cov- 
ering the  head  or  uncovering  it  in  the  Sanctuary,  are  but  outward 
demonstrations  of  reverence,  just  as  black  garments  and  crape  are 
outward  demf)nstration  of  sorrow.  Reverence  is  a  command  issued  to 
the  soul  only  that  can  be  expressed  in  feeling  rather  than  in  form, 
though  feelings  seize  upon  formulas  of  movement  at  last  for  their  out- 
let. We  might  almost  translate  the  command,  "  Ye  shall  reverence 
my  sanctuary" — "  realize  the  sanctity  of  all  that  is,  and  see  in  every 
place  a  possible  Temple  of  God." 

Thai  outward  forms  of  reverence  for  the  tangible  Sanctuary  did 


REVERENCE    AND    RATIONALISM.  149 

not  always  imply  inward  regard  for  the  principles  which  that  Sanctuary 
only  typified,  is  indicated  time  and  again  in  every  Hebrew  prophet. 

Says  Amos:  "  They  lay  themselves  down  beside  every  nltar  upon 
clothes  taken  in  pledge,  and  in  the  house  of  G()d  they  drink  wine  of 
such  as  have  been  fined."  "  When  will  the  New  Moon  be  gone  that 
we  may  sell  corn  and  the  Sal)bath  tliat  we  may  set  forth  wheat,  mak- 
ing the  ephah  small  and  the  shekel  great,  and  dealing  falsely  with 
Balances  of  deceit." 

Says  Hosea :  "For  I  desire  kindness  and  not  sacrifice,  and 
knowledge  of  God  more  than  burnt  oflTerings." 

Says  Micah  :  "  The  priests  teach  for  hire  and  the  prophets  divine 
for  money,  yet  will  they  lean  upon  the  Lord  and  say:  'Is  not  the 
Lord  in  the  midst  of  us?'" 

Says  Isaiah  :  "  When  you  come  to  appear  before  me,  who  hath  re- 
quired this  at  your  hand  to  trample  my  courts  ?  Your.new  moons  and 
your  appointed  feasts  my  soul  haleth.  When  you  make  many  pra3'ers 
I  will  not  hear.     Your  hands  are  full  of  l)lood." 

Finally,  Jeremiah,  speaking  with  still  greater  directness,  bluntly 
says:  "Trust  not  in  lying  words,  saying  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Lord, 
the  Sauctuarv  of  the  Lord,  the  Saiictuarv  of  the  Lord  are  these. 
Will  ye  steal  and  murder  and  stand  before  me  in  this  house,  which  is 
called  by  my  nan)e,  and  say  we  are  delivered?" 

We  must  reverence  not  so  nuuth  the  House  of  God  as  the  Word 
of  God,  was  the  later  cry,  and  all  religion  was  concentrated  in  the 
Law  as  containing  the  whole  duty  of  man.  But  even  here  the  \v(U'- 
ship  of  the  Word  led  to  a  lessening  of  the  Spirit.  Indeed,  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  reduce  the  sublime  teachings  of  humanity  and  that  spiritual 
fervor  born  of  the  soul's  yearning  toward  the  Highest  to  the  codifica- 
tion of  law  and  the  dry  formulas  of  legal  enactments,  without  losing  a 
something  of  their  spirit  and  their  essence.  The  B  lok  itself  came  to 
be  worshiped  as  a  fetich,  even  to  its  externals,  so  that  the  ink  with 
which  it  was  written  must  be  prepared  with  almost  the  care  of  the  oil 
for  the  continual  light  in  the  Sanctuary.  The  blind  worship  excluded 
discrimination,  and  the  names  of  Esau's  wives  were  to  be  regarded 
with  the  same  reverence  as  the  Ten  Commandments. 

Once  the  piiuciple  accepted  that  all  religion  can  be  reduced  to 
law,  the  Rabbis  zealously  endeavored  to  codify  a  rule  for  every  minute 
duty  of  life,  thus  cutting  off  the  opportunity  for  spontaneous  i-eligious 
outburst,  and  the  free  i)lay  of  holy  emotions,  either  in  prayer  or 
action.  So,  while  they  cried  to  hallow  every  moment  of  life,  and 
blessed  be  their  memory  for  it,  this  noble  ideal,  of  which  we  can  not 
speak  too  highly,  was  defeated  by  the  unfortunate  method. 


150  ETHICS. 

But  we  must  discriminate  here  as  every-wliere,  and  not  ra.shly  de- 
cide that,  because  cereinonialisra,  that  legitimate  and  helpful  side  of 
organized  religion,  has  been  abused  in  the  past,  that  therefore  it  is  in 
itself  an  abuse.  The  prophets  just  quoted  must  not  be  understood  as 
despising  all  ceremonial.  Nor  is  it  fair  to  interpret  them  too  literally, 
when  carried  away  by  righteous  indignation.  For  we  have  only  to 
turn  a  few  leaves  to  find  in  other  cliapters  a  refutation  of  that  mistaken 
but  popular  supposition.  The  subtle  influence  of  religious  symbolism 
upon  character  will  surely  be  recognized  by  tlie  thoughtful,  who 
acknowledge  that  morality  is  complex  and  needs  many  springs  to 
feed  it. 

But  it  is  hard  to  formulate  faith  and  feeling  without  their  degen- 
erating into  grotesque  symbols,  which  escape  all  likeness  to  the  original 
idea.  But  if  the  Hebrews  of  the  middle  ages  lost  the  spirit  of  rever- 
ence in  ceremonial,  they  were  entirely  free  from  what  I  can  only  de- 
scribe as  artificial  reverence,  which  was  perhaps  the  corresponding 
error  of  the  Church.  They  always  shrunk  from  make-believe  in  re- 
ligion. 

But  by  artificial  reverence  I  mean  this :  The  officials  of  the 
Sanctuaries  thought  it  necessary  to  give  external  evidence  of  their 
appreciation  of  its  holiness.  Hence  the  straight-laced  countenance, 
the  sanctimonious  tone,  the  unctions  manner,  the  frequent  pious  quo- 
tation so  that  the  whole  bearing  breathes  the  very  aroma  of  the  Sanc- 
tuary. I  do  not  mean  that  officials  Avere  necessarily  impostors,  like 
the  Roman  augurs  who  could  not  look  into  each  other's  faces  without 
laughing ;  but  that  when  such  forms  of  reverence  have  removed  their 
impression  and  are  mechanically  continued  by  force  of  habit,  that  the 
pious  phrases  become  cant,  and  such  officials  fall  into  hypocrisy  so 
gradually  as  hardly  to  be  aware  of  it  themselves. 

Tliis  mere  semblance  of  reverence  for  the  Sanctuary  has  brought 
the  Sanctuary  into  discredit  and  reverence  too.  Awe  is  beautiful,  but 
the  pretense  of  awe  is  contemptible.  The  actor  in  the  Sanctuary  play- 
ing the  ]-6le  of  reverence  is  the  last  extreme  of  blasphemy.  The  priest 
in  the  temple  practicing  upon  the  superstitious  tears  and  the  ig- 
norance of  the  people,  giving  them  a  sham  to  worship  while  comforta- 
bly consuming  their  sacrifices,  believing  only  in  his  solid  comfort  and 
his  substantial  salary,  deserves  no  mercy  at  the  hands  of  an  infuriated 
mob  when  his  fraud  is  discovered.  I  say  the  same,  be  he  a  priest  an- 
cient or  modern,  pastor,  Rabbi,  or  Church  deacon.  Such  impostors 
have  injured  the  cause  of  religion,  have  shaken  the  very  foundations 
of  morality. 

The  revolt  against  organized  religion  that  began  at  the  end  of  the 


UEVERENCE    AND    RATIONALISM.  151 

last  century  with  the  French  Revolution  and  tiie  sin-ead  of  skepticism, 
were  the  natural  consequences.  Every  thing  religious  was  regarded 
with  suspicion.  The  Sanctuary  was  no  longer  leverenced,  it  was  mis- 
trusted. The  Church,  the  Synagogue,  religious  ceremony,  the  minis- 
try, even  the  Bible,  became  favorite  subjects  for  ridicule,  for  ribald 
jest,  and  coarse  jibe.  From  the  one  extreme  of  the  worshiper  trem- 
bling with  bowed  head  before  his  Maker  with  an  awe  that  was  almost 
superstitious — there  followed  that  other  extreme  of  turniug  Houses  of 
Worship  into  granaries  aud  fortifications,  and  insulting  and  defiling 
their  hallowed  belongings.  Meu  jumped  from  blind  faith  to  blind 
atheism. 

The  storm  of  upheaval  has  somewhat  subsided.  We  are  gradu- 
ally readjusting  ourselves  to  better  conditions.  We  are  reverencing 
the  Sanctuary  again,  but  in  a  new  and  more  enlightened  way.  The 
dim  religious  light  has  been  succeeded  l)y  a  flood  of  sunshine.  Rev- 
erence does  not  require  darkness  for  its  background.  We  need  not 
create  by  theatrical  effect  artificial  suggestions  of  mystery  to  feed  the 
imagination,  the  real  mysteries  of  God,  the  World,  aud  the  Soul  are 
so  vast  and  so  profound. 

But  again  mistrust  has  followed  this  temporary  reaction.  The 
skepticism  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  deeper  than  the  skepticism  of 
the  eighteenth.  We  are  appalled  at  our  own  discoveries,  and  alarmed 
at  the  bewildering  infinities  that  our  researches  have  conjured  up. 
The  conscientious  and  thoughtful  are  full  of  misgiving.  They  declare 
that,  if  fear  is  the  child  of  ignorance,  then  doubt  is  the  child  of 
knowledge;  and  that  reverence  is  further  away  than  ever.  Evolution 
has  revealed  to  us  a  much  vaster  universe  than  was  pictured  by  the 
unaided  imagination  of  our  ancestors.  But  if  theoretically  God  has 
been  brought  nearer  to  us,  practically  he  is  further  away  from  us. 
Natural  selection  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  have  almost  explained 
away  the  need  of  Providence  and  have  made  the  universe  w'ell  nigh 
automatic.  Has  not  evolution  magnified  creation  as  a  whole,  but  min- 
imized man  in  particular?  they  ask  in  dismay — forcing  him  to  the  con- 
viction that  he  is  deposed  from  his  proud  position  as  the  center  of  all 
creation — that  he  has  been  robbed  of  something  of  his  dignity,  some- 
thing of  his  importance.  There  is  no  longer  a  gap  between  him  and 
"the  brutes  that  perish."     Perhaps  he  is  brute  that  perishes  himself. 

Furthermore  the  far-reaching  application  of  cause  and  effect,  that 
has  been  so  minutely  elaborated  by  scientific  study,  is  robbing  him  of 
freedom  of  the  will  and  hence  personal  responsibility.  Some  disciples 
of  the  Utilitarian  School  even  explain  away  conscience,  worth,  and 
merit.     And  the  general  spread  of  such  theories  among  the  masses  at 


152  ETurcs. 

large  would   be  far  more  disastrous  to  the  moral  future  of  the  world 
than  that  loss  of  dignity  just  referred  to. 

All  this  new  conception  of  the  universe  has  made  him  less  sure  of 
his  immortality,  or  even  of  his  soul.  Even  the  teaching  of  Antigonus 
of  Socho  that  we  do  good  for  its  own  sake,  and  not  for  the  ho))e  of  re- 
ward, that  i)unishment  is  subjective,  may  be  carried  too  far;  and  the 
old  fear  of  punishment  in  the  future  may  be  followed  by  the  still  more 
awful  fear  that  we  and  our  doings  are  entirely  ignored  by  the  powers 
above.  The  thought  of  punishment  may  have  its  terrors,  but  tlie 
thought  of  neglect  is  still  more  terrible.  Man  hopes  when  he  fears 
less.  Take  from  the  future  its  consequences,  you  take  from  life  its 
enthusiasm.  Half  light  encourages  romance  and  mystery;  full  glare 
dispels  illusion,  but  sentiment  too,  and  clips  the  wings  of  imagination. 

Is  it  true  that  we  feel  less  because  we  know  more?  Does  knowl- 
edge make  us  cold  ?  Does  the  fact  that  we  have  learnt  the  causes  of 
so  many  things  lessen  our  feeling  of  reverence  ?  Is  science  the  enemy 
of  religion  after  all?  Do  faith  and  inquiry  stand  at  opposite  poles  ? 
Is  ignorance  necessary  to  faith?  Is  skepticism  the  necessary  outcome 
of  knowledge  ? 

If  all  this  were  true,  the  conclusion  woulil  fill  us  with  melancholy. 
We  would  1)6  ])r()gressing  backwanl.  The  ignorance  of  .savagery 
wf)uld  have  been  the  golden  age.  The  tree  of  knowledge  would  in- 
deed  be  the  disenchanter,  driving  us  fi'om  the  garden  of  hope  and 
ideals  to  the  gloomy  desert  of  a  despairing  reality. 

Let  us  hasten  to  reassure  ourselves  at  the  outset.  Reverence  is 
not  the  measure  of  our  ignorance.  Tliey  are  not  mutual  conditions. 
In  certain  respects  they  are  natural  contradictions.  The  reverence  of 
the  ignorant  is  not  the  result  of  their  ignorance,  anv  more  than  the 
materialism  of  the  scientist  is  the  consequence  of  his  science.  Athe- 
ism antedated  evolution,  and  theism  has  survived  its  dissemination. 
It  has  even  deepened  the  faith  of  some.  To  many  an  explorer  its  re- 
sults have  made  God  greater,  life  grander,  and  duty  holier.  We  need 
not  be  afraid  whither  our  researches  may  bring  us,  for  we  can  never 
exhaust  the  glories  of  the  Infinite,  nor  fathom  the  source  of  the  Ever- 
lasting God.  Our  reasoning  faculties  are  the  gift  of  our  Maker,  and 
we  would  be  showing  poor  gratitude  for  his  gifts  by  neglecting  or  mis- 
trusting them.  God's  perpetual  revelation  unfolds  before  us  as  fast  as 
our  expanding  souls  can  drink  it  in.  Let  us  not  earn  the  reproach  of 
Isaiah,  that  having  ca'cs  we  should  see  not,  and  having  ears  we  should 
hear  not.  If  the  age  is  not  religious,  it  is  not  l)ecause  the  age  is  wise. 
And  he  who  knows  only  enough  to  be  irreverent,  only  enough  to 
deny — he  knows  little  indeed,  and  is  not  less  ignorant  becau.se  he  dis- 


REVERENCE    AND    RATIONALISM.  153 

claims  it.  Many  a  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God.  Never 
is  the  proverbial  "little  knowledge"  so  dangerous  as  in  the  realm  of 
religion,  and  heaven  save  us  from  the  newly  fledged  college  graduate, 
who  has  heard  a  few  chapters  from  Herbert  Spencer's  "First  Princi- 
ples," and  thinks  "  he  knows  it  all." 

And  yet  there  is  a  something  in  this  charge  against  the  times, 
one-sided  and  half-truth  though  it  be,  that  bids  us  pause.  This  is 
the  age  of  rationalism.  It  has  made  as  its  motto:  "The  voice  of 
reason  is  the  voice  of  God."  The  worth  of  all  things  in  the  heaven 
above  and  in  the  earth  beneath  must  be  tested  in  the  crucible  of  logic, 
and  be  capable  of  experimental  demonstration.  This  spirit  of  ration- 
alism has  reached  religion  too.  Our  beliefs  and  doctrines  must  admit 
of  almost  mathematical  deduction.  The  pulpit  busies  itself  with 
proofs  and  evidences,  and  appeals  to  the  intellect  of  the  congregation. 
A  scientific  lecture  will  often  replace  the  simple  homily  of  olden  days. 

Of  course,  it  would  be  childish  to  deny  that  this  spirit  of  investi- 
gation has  not  done  good  service  to  religion.  It  has  cleared  it  from 
error  and  misconception  ;  it  has  checked  unbalanced  sentiment;  it  has 
broadened  and  deepened  its  principles  in  the  light  of  the  very  latest 
knowledge.  But  our  enthusiasm  has  carried  us  too  far.  In  our  ad- 
miration for  mind,  we  have  neglected  the  claims  of  emotion.  But  re- 
move emotion  from  religion,  and  you  reduce  it  to  a  cold  philosophy. 
Man  is  something  more  than  a  thinking  machine.  The  intellectual 
and  the  emotional  react  on  each  other  and  become  mutually  helpful 
by  revising  and  supplementing  each  other's  deductions.  A  certain 
kind  of  knowledge  is  revealed  tlirough  feeling  that  cold  thought  failed 
to  discern.  Intention,  to  which  we  owe  so  much,  is  perhaps  a  com- 
promise between  feeling  and  knowing — a  conviction  of  the  soul  that 
evades  demonstration  through  mind. 

Reason  is  not  the  voice  of  God,  but  a  voice.  Is  it  "  the  still  small 
voice?"  must  be  religion's  supreme  question.  If  God  speaks  to  us  in 
a  thousand  different  voices,  or,  as  it  has  been  poetically  put,  "God  ful- 
fills his  will  in  many  ways,"  let  rationalism  dispel  our  illusions  by  all 
means,  but  let  it  not  rob  us  of  the  sanction  of  sentiment,  or  we  will 
be  paying  too  much  for  it.  Because  religion  no  longer  feai's  science 
as  an  enemy,  it  need  not  go  to  the  other  extreme  and  regard  it  as  all- 
sufficient,  and  neglect  its  own  inheritance. 

Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more, 
And  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell. 

Religion  is  not  a  mere  matter  of  argument.  The  gathering  of 
priests  and  rabbis  by  some  stupid  mediaeval  kings  to  prove  publicly  the 


154  KTIIICS. 

meritf*  of  their  respective  creeds,  fill  us  with  liorror  and  disgust.  The 
best  that  is  in  religion  escapes  demonstration,  is  perhaps  degraded  by 
demonstration.  "  Words,  like  uatnre,  half  reveal  and  half  conceal  the 
thought  within."  We  get  flashes  of  it  here  aud  there  in  moments  of 
inspiration,  but  "  no  man  can  see  God's  face  and  live." 

So  I  believe  that  when  one  is  tried  for  heresy,  the  essence  of  re- 
ligion is  gone.  A  man's  conception  of  God  is  a  something  sacred  to 
himself.  To  tamper  with  his  faith,  to  strive  to  force  it  by  physical 
violence,  is  irreverence  carried  to  the  extreme  of  blasphemy.  For  it 
must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  creeds  follow  religions;  they  do  not 
precede  them.  First  the  Prophets  and  then  the  Law  was  the  real 
order.  They  are  simply  the  result  of  looking  back  upon  beliefs  after 
the  religion  is  fully  developed,  and  is  followed  by  a  critical  stage, 
usually  a  time,  too,  when  religious  fervor  has  so  cooled  down  that  man 
can  leisurely  pause  to  codify  his  theories  and  take  stock  of  his  doc- 
trines.    It  is,  therefore,  never  the  most  spiritual  period  of  a  religion. 

We  persist  in  going  to  science  and  philosophy  to  find  out  God,  in 
spite  of  their  calm  and  positive  assurance  that  it  lies  beyond  their 
province  either  to  prove  or  disprove  divinity,  their  deductions  oidy  re- 
sulting in  antinomies.  Religion  begins  where  science  ends.  I  vent- 
ure to  say  that  even  the  proof  of  a  First  Cause  through  the  cosuio- 
logical  or  the  ontological  argument  has  no  value  for  religion.  It  is  no 
more  likely  to  inspire  to  worship  than  mathematics.  It  is  appri)aching 
God  from  the  wrong  side.  "Can  we  by  searching  find  out  God?" 
No.  Religion  must  teach  man  to  reach  God  through  the  soul.  When 
we  must  needs  sit  down  to  prove  God,  our  faith  is  in  a  desperate  con- 
dition. The  Psalms  can  hardly  be  said  to  contain  proofs  of  Gcid,  yet 
they  breathe  his  whole  spirit.  It  is  not  a  t)ook  of  proofs,  it  is  a  book 
of  faith.  1  am  fully  aware  of  the  abuses  to  which  blind  faith  has  led 
man,  just  as  well  as  I  am  aware  of  the  dreary  and  dispiriting  results 
of  science  unaided  by  religious  imagination.  InteUigo  ut  credam,  we 
must  understand  to  believe,  is  a  good  maxim,  l)ut  credo  rd  intelligam, 
we  must  have  faith  to  understand  contains  a  more  subtle  truth  that 
touches  a  vital  principle  in  religion.  And  yet  there  is  a  fear  that  the 
modern  rationalistic  preacher  fails  to  appreciate  the  value  of  fiiith  in 
religion.  They  feel  lliat  doing  and  being  are  so  nuich  better  than  be- 
lieving, that  man  can  I)e  siived  by  works  rather  than  hy  faith,  which 
is  certainly  true,  hut  here,  too,  they  have  carried  a  virtue  to  the  ex- 
treme (if  a  fault.  We  point  with  a  little  too  much  pride  and  a  lit- 
tle too  much  positiveness  to  the  absence  of  dogma  from  Judaism.  We 
should  not  forget  that  some  kind  of  faith  must  underlie  works;  that  a 
belief  is   implied   in   every   reasonable  deed.      The  grandeur  of  our 


REVERENCE    AND    RATIONALISM.  155 

ancestors  as  the  relifrioiis  teachers  of  mankind  lay  in  their  implicit 
faith  in  the  power  of  a  ri_o;hteons  God,  whose  nearness  to  us  varies 
with  our  moral  worth.  To  or}'  for  morality  and  to  despise  faith  is  to 
cry  for  flowers  and  despise  roots,  and  is  as  unreasonable  as  to  expect 
our  flowers  to  continue  blooming  after  they  have  been  severed  from 
the  root  on  which  they  grew. 

Indifference  to  doctrine  and  loss  of  faith  have  been  followed  by  a 
lack  of  appreciation  of  prayer,  by  a  lowering  of  ideals  and  a  loss  of  rev- 
erence for  the  sanctuary.  I  use  the  expression  "  reverelioe  for  the 
sanctuary"  in  the  broad  sense,  that  there  is  nothing  holy  for  us.  Our 
lives  are  becoming  more  secular,  and  we  are  losing  what  I  can  only  de- 
scribe as  spirituality,  and  which  is  the  bloom  of  that  very  morality  of 
which  we  preach  so  much. 

Spirituality  is  a  word  easier  uttered  than  defined.  It  is  a  species 
of  moral  refinement  that  comes  from  a  vivid  realization  of  the  soul's 
kinship  with  divinity — a  sense  of  entering  into  communion  with  God. 
In  our  craze  for  rationalism,  and  in  our  decline  of  faith,  we  have  wan- 
dered so  far  from  the  spirit  of  our  ancestors,  that  that  yearning  of  the 
Psalmist,  "As  the  heart  pauteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  my  soul 
panteth  after  thee,  O,  God.  My  soul  thirsteth  for  God,  for  the  living 
God,"  must  sound  strange,  indeed,  almost  incomprehensible  to  the 
ears  of  the  modern,  practical,  prosaic  Jew,  as  tliough  this  were  the 
phraseology  of  some  other  creed  instead  of  the  very  spirit  of  the  an- 
cient Hebrews.  I  can  almost  imagine  a  smile  at  reference  to  these 
soul  yearnings,  because  from  the  material  standpoint  it  seems  that 
these  expressions  must  either  cover  hypocrisy  or  are  the  result  of 
weak-mindedness  and  maudlin  sentiment. 

But  the  rationalist  will  tell  us  that  we  need  above  all  things  the 
truth  ;  that  we  must  boldly  and  fearlessly  say  what  we  believe  regard- 
less of  consequence  ;  that  evil  can  not  possibly  come  from  the  utter- 
ance of  truth  ;  and  the  word  is  written  in  big  capitals. 

But  there  is  danger  here,  too,  in  the  manner  we  may  present 
even  what  we  believe  to  be  absolutely  right.  For  since  we  can  never 
get  more  than  fragments  of  truth  at  best,  since  so  much  is  left  to  the 
inference  of  imagination  in  which  feeling  plays  so  large  a  part,  there- 
fore must  we,  the  guardians  of  religion,  realizing  the  solemnity  of  our 
trust,  strive,  with  painstaking  and  conscientious  care,  so  to  present 
the  little  that  we  think  we  know  to  those  who  loi)k  to  us  for  guidance 
in  the  highest  and  holiest  of  life's  duties,  that  it  may  inspire  them 
and  lead  to  their  spiritual  Awakening,  and  not  in  a  way  to  shock  their 
moral  sensibilities,  producing  religious  apathy  or  hopeless  despair. 


156  ETHICS. 

If  Biblical  research  has  led  us  to  the  modern  school,  there  is  less 
difTerence  between  the  old  theory  of  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures  and  tlie  new  school  of  higher  criticism  than  there  is  be- 
tween the  possible  ways  of  presenting  the  latter  for  the  purpose  of 
cultivating  faith  and  reverence.  We  may,  like  Ingersoll,  see  in  the 
Pentateuch  nothing  but  the  mistakes  of  Moses,  and  give  it  forth  to 
the  public  iu  a  caricature,  as  Schleiermacher  presented  the  Talmud. 
Oi',  on  the  other  hand,  even  iu  discrediting  the  miracles  as  miracles, 
we  can  show  the  intense  morality  behind  the  very  legends  and  the  ex- 
quisite trust  of  our  ancestors  iu  a  perpetually  present  Providence  that 
slumbers  not  nor  sleepeth — that  has  made  the  Bible  the  book  of 
power  it  always  will  remain.  The  touch  of  reverence  with  which  we 
present  the  truth  as  we  uuderstaud,  makes  at  times  more  difference 
than  the  truth  itself. 

Even  our  doubts  can  be  expressed  with  that  reverential  awe  that 
the  perpetual  mysteries  around  us  inspire,  or  can  be  made  the  occasion 
for  mockery  and  levity.  Reverence  does  not  always  vary  in  the  ratio 
of  belief.  There  are  people  who  never  doubt  because  they  never  think, 
while  "  there  (may  be)  more  real  faith  in  honest  doubt,  believe  me,  than 
in  half  the  creeds."  Again,  we  can  feel  reverence  for  the  religion  of 
another.  This  is  the  highest  form  of  liberality — perhaps  the  only 
liberality.  So  much  depends  upon  the  attitude  with  which  we  ap- 
proach the  Holy  of  Holies — whether  we  recognize  it  as  holy,  remov- 
ing our  shoes,  so  to  speak  m^tl  C*1p  n,t21?^  *3),  "i"  whether  as 
fools  we  rush  iu  where  angels  fear  to  tread,  and  vandal-like  rudely  tear 
aside  the  veil,  to  gratify  a  vulgar  curiosity. 

For  mockery  is  a  vandal  that  rutldessly  shatters  our  hallowed 
sentiments  en.shriued  in  the  temple  of  our  hearts  and  by  its  coarse  jeers 
tears  in  shreds  the  living  garment  of  God,  in  which  the  labors  of  all 
humanity  are  interwoveu.  Mockery  makes  the  sacred  profane  taint- 
ing the  soul  with  its  venom,  and  the  holier  the  theme  the  more-  revolt- 
ing becomes  the  caricature  for  "  corraptio  optiini  pessima."  The  varia- 
tion of  a  tone  changes  a  prayer  into  a  sneer  and  may  do  more  to 
u])set  the  honest  faith  of  an  honest  soul  than  twenty  solid  arguments; 
f  )r  though  it  be  but  a  step  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous,  from 
the  ridiculous  to  the  sublime,  is  a  gulf  impassable. 

Therefore,  in  the  religious  education  of  children,  the  manner  of 
presentation  should  give  us  much  concern.  A  parent  may  encourage 
certain  religious  observances  in  the  home  and  yet  present  them  in  a 
matter  of  fact  way  that  ro])s  them  of  afl  religious  value.  Prayer 
without    revereiic(,'    is    worse    tliaii    notliing.       We    give    perhaps    too 


REVERENCE    AND    RATIONALISM.  '  157 

much  coiisideratinii  to  tlio  qticf^tioii  :  Toacli  us  what  to  pi'av,  aud  not 
enough  to  the  question:  Tench  us  liow  to  i)ray.  We  are  so  afraid 
that  our  prayers  might  not  be  logical  or  that  an  anthi'opomorphism 
might  creep  in.  As  if  the  feeling  were  not  eveiT  thing  and  the 
words  notliing. 

Without  teaching  chihlren  any  doctrines  of  dt^gmas  at  the  outset, 
we  must  strive  diligently  :i>i<l  lovingly  to  cultivate  their  sense  of  rev- 
erence, not  necessarily  for  any  particular  object,  but  reverence  as  such, 
as  a  quality  of  character.  Open  to  its  young  soul  the  perpetual  niys- 
tery  aud  the  perpetual  sublimity  of  all  that  is.  It  will  then  of  itself 
look  upon  life  aud  the  universe  from  its  sublime  side,  and  the 
idea  of  God  will  be  intuitively  suggested  almost  before  it  is  dis- 
tinctly taught.  In  this  way  the  very  frame-work  of  religion  is  al- 
ready laid  in  the  heart  of  the  child  ready  to  be  clothed  with  the 
particular  faith  of  its  ancestors.  The  perpetual  wonder  of  a  child 
for  every  thing  around  it  may  be  discouraged  into  sober  matter-of- 
fact,  may  be  darkened  iuto  fear,  may  be  deepened  into  awe. 
Here  is  the  parent's  supreme  opportunity  and  supreme  respcmsi- 
bility.  The  child's  boundless  and  sensitive  imagination — one  of  its 
greatest  charms — must  not  be  allowed  to  run  wild,  but  should  be  di- 
rected to  religious  uses.  They  should  be  taught  to  regard  their  par- 
ents as  invested  with  divine  authority  for  them,  to  disobey  whom  is 
sacrilege ;  and  they  should  be  led  to  look  upon  the  home  as  their  first 
Sanctuary,  for  if  they  desecrate  that  Sanctuary,  no  spot  can  be  holy 
for  them — no  shrine  can  be  sacred  in  their  eyes.  "  Ye  shall  reverence 
my  Sanctuary" — "Ye  shall  reverence,  every  man  his  father  and  his 
mother." 

I  have  said  that  religion  is  our  conception  of  the  universe.  The 
child's  universe  is  very  small  indeed,  but  we  can  make  it  sweet  and 
pure  and  beautiful,  or  we  can  make  it  dreary  and  rough  aud  common. 
For  life  for  all  of  us  is  what  we  make  it— material  or  sublime— and 
reverence  is  the  dividing  line. 

I  am  not  calling  upon  my  people  to  preach  a  new  gospel,  but 
simply  asking  them  to  go  back  to  their  own  first  principles.  Since  it 
was  their  privilege  to  bring  to  man  the  first  message  of  righteous  di- 
vinity, let  them  resume  their  ancient  birth-right.  And  in  an  age  that 
would  worship  reason  only — like  some  new  idol — let  them  vindicate 
the  claim  of  the  soul.  "  There  are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth" 
than  we  can  ever  hope  to  explain.  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonder- 
ful for  me,  I  can  not  attain  it.  But  faith  begins  wdiere  knowledge 
ends.     The  senses  have  been  developed  to  tlieir  utmost,  but  the  end- 


158  ETHICt?. 

le.-?s  capacities  of  the  spirit,  in  which  are  hidden  divine  possibilities,  are 
still  almost  untested.  The  realm  of  the  soul  is  still  an  undiscovered 
world,  yet  all  the  greatness  of  the  coming  man  lies  there — all  our 
Messianic  hopes  and  grandest  ideals.  Let  religion  then  return  to  its 
neglected  inheritance,  and  perhaps,  like  unto  Moses,  the  glory  of  God 
may  pass  before  us. 


THE    GREATNESS    AND    INFLUENCE    OF    MOSES.  159 


THE  GREATNESS  AND  INFLUENCE  OF  MOSES. 

By  rabbi  (t.  (K)TTHEIL. 


Last  Monday  morning  it  was  the  day  of  our  church  new  year,  a 
festival  of  great  solemnity  with  us.  About  this  very  hour  of  the  day, 
I  and  my  brethren,  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  read  this  prayer: 

"Our  God  anct"  God  of  our  fathers,  reign  Thou  over  the  whole 
world  in  Thy  glory,  and  be  exalted  in  Thy  majesty  over  the  whole 
earth,  and  shine  forth  in  the  excellence  of  Thy  supreme  power  over 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  terrestrial  world,  and  may  everything  whicli 
has  been  made  be  sensible  that  Thou  hast  made  it,  and  every  thing 
formed  understand  that  Thou  hast  formed  it,  and  all  who  have  breath 
in  their  nostrils  know  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  reigneth  and  His  su- 
preme power  ruleth  over  all.  And  thus  also  extend  the  fear  of 
Thee,  O  Lord  our  God,  over  all  Thy  works,  and  the  dread  of  Thee 
over  all  that  Thou  hast  created,  so  that  all  Thy  works  may  fear  Thee 
and  all  creatures  bow  down  before  Thee,  so  that  they  all  may  form  one 
bond  to  do  Thy  will  with  an  upright  heart,  for  we  know,  0  Lord  our 
God,  that  the  dominion  is  Thine,  that  strength  is  in  Thy  hand,  tiiat 
might  is  in  Thy  right  hand,  and  that  Thy  name  is  to  be  reverenced 
over  all  the  earth." 

Just  at  that  moment  this  great  Parliament  of  Religions  was 
opened,  and  we  could  not  but  point  to  this  great  manifestation  as  a 
sign  that  our  prayers  and  our  sufferings  and  our  labors  have  not  been 
in  vain — that  to  this  free  country  it  was  given  to  show  that  the  Word 
of  God  is  true,  and  that  not  one  of  His  promises  can  fall  to  the 
ground. 

Now  I  am  to  speak  on  the  greatness  of  Moses.  I  believe  that  is 
the  most  striking  testimony,  that  he  always  remains  IMoses,  the  man 
of  God,  the  legislator;  and  that  he  so  instructed  his  people  and  so  in- 
fused his  own  spirit  into  their  constitution  that  never,  at  no  time  and 
under  no  provocation,  was  the  attempt  made  in  the  Jewish  Church  to 
raise  him  above  his  simple  humanity.  Although  they  have  proved 
their  fidelity  to  him— their  belief  in  his  law  by  every  possible  testi- 
mony that  can  be  applied — yet  he  was  Moses,  the  servant  of  God, 
until  the  highest  praise  bestowed  upon   him,  which,  I  may  say,  is  the 


160  ETHICS. 

canon  of  the  Jewish  Church  in  regard  to  the  legislator,  is  taken  from 
the  pages  of  the  Scriptures  themselves,  where  it  is  said  :  "  Never  was 
in  Israel  a  prophet  like  unto  him,  and  beyond  Israel  where  shall  we 
look  for  his  equal  ?" 

I  am  not  speaking  in  the  narrow  spirit  of  rivalry;  far  be  that 
from  mv  theme.  Veneration  for  Moses  has  not  yet  liindered  me  to 
see,  to  admire,  and  to  learn  from  other  masters — the  sun  has  lost 
nothintr  of  his  a-lorv  since  we  know  that  he  is  not  the  center  of  the 
universe,  and  that  in  other  fields  of  the  infinite  space  there  are  like 
suns  unto  him.  What  shall  hinder  me  to  learn  from  tiie  masters 
which  you  honor?  I  can  well  understand,  I  can  honor  the  man  that 
said:  "All  must  decrease  that  Christ  may  increase."  But  no  true 
Christ  ever  said  :  "All  must  decrease  that  I  mny  increase."  And  I 
remember  the  fine  saying  ascribed  to  Buddha:  "I  forbid  you,"  said 
he  to  Ids  disciples,  "  I  forbid  you  to  believe  any  thing  simply  because 
I  said  it." 

Where  shall  we  find  one  that  combines  in  his  personality  so  many 
greatnesses  as  Moses,  if  I  may  say  so?  He  was  the  liberator  of  his 
people,  but  he  spurned  crowns  and  scepters,  ami  did  not,  as  many 
others  after  him  did,  put  a  new  yoke  on  the  neck  from  which  he  had 
taken  the  old  one.  To  every  lover  of  the  American  constitution  that 
man  must  be  a  political  saint.  And  his  republic  was  not  of  short  du- 
ration. It  lasted  through  all  the  stcTrms  of  barbaric  wars  and  revolu- 
tions— hundreds  of  years,  down  to  the  days  of  Samuel,  that  all-stout- 
hearted republican  who  could  endure  no  kings.  That  man  that  saw 
so  clearly  what  royal  work  would  do ;  that  man  who  is  so  wrongly 
judged  by  our  Sunday-school  moralists;  he  fought  with  his  last  breath 
for  tl)e  independence  of  his  people,  an<l  when  the  king  they  had 
chosen  showed  he  was  not  the  rigiit  man,  he  s])arcd  him  not  and  looked 
for  one  that  should  be  worthy  to  I'ule  his  people. 

But  the  republic  he  founded  stands  unique  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  for  it  was  altogether  based  upon  an  idea — the  idea  of  the  unity 
of  God  and  the  righteousness  of  His  will.  Think  of  it!  Among  a 
nation  escaped  from  bondage,  too  degraded  even  to  be  led  to  war,  that 
needed  the  education,  the  haintnering,  as  it  were,  into  a  people  for 
forty  years,  to  go  among  them  with  tlie  sublimest  trutli  that  the  hu- 
man mind  can  ever  conceive  and  to  say  to  them:  '"Though  you  are 
now  benighted  and  enslaved,  any  truth  that  I  know  is  not  too  good 
for  you  nor  any  child  of  God."  Whence  did  thi,'  man  derive  that  in- 
spiration? If  from  tiie  Ahnighty,  then  may  we  not  say  there  arose 
not  another  like  him?     And  can  we  wonder  that  when   he  came  dowa 


THE   GREATNESS    AND    INFLUENCE   OF   MOSES.  161 

from  the  mountain,  the  liglit  that  shone  from  his  face  wjts  too  much 
for  the  eyes  of  his  people  and  he  had  to  cover  it? 

Did  he  learn  that  grand  idea  from  Egypt  ?  Wo  know  that  he 
was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  but  if  he  learned  any 
thing  there  he  learned  there  how  not  to  do  it.  For  so  complete  is  the 
contrast  between  Egyptian  conception  of  state  and  the  Mosaic.  All 
honor  to  that  nation  of  torch-bearers  of  antiquity  !  And  here  we  now 
recover  the  wliule  literature  of  that  people,  and  there  has  not  been 
found  a  single  sentence  yet  that  could  be  given  to  mankind  as  a  guide 
in  their  perplexities.  And  not  a  name  has  come  down  to  us  that  was 
borne  by  one  who  lal)ored  for  mankind.  As  a  teacher  of  morality, 
why  need  I  praise  him?  As  a  teacher  of  statecraft  in  the  highest  and 
best  sense,  who  surpassed  him  ?  The  great  wonder  is  that  that  man 
speaks  the  language  of  to-day.  The  problems  which  we  have  not  yet 
succeeded  in  solving  were  already  present  to  his  mind,  and  he  founded 
a  nation  in  which  the  difference  between  the  poor  and  the  rich  was 
almost  abolished.  The  laborer  was  not  only  worthy  but  sure  of  his 
hire.  No  aristocrat  could  rule  over  his  subjects  and  no  priesthood 
could  ever  assume  the  government  which,  alas!  according  to  history, 
means  the  opposition  of  the  nation.  How  did  that  man  of  that  vast 
mind,  how  did  he  combine  all  these  great  talents?  And  yet  that 
man,  how  tender  his  heart  was!  Wliy,  friends,  it  is  a  thousand  pities 
that  you  can  not  hear  the  deep  sorrow,  the  sadness  that  is  to  be  heard 
in  his  original  woixls.  When  an  over-zealous  disciple  came  to  him 
and  told  that  they  were  prophesying  in  his  name,  and  they  said: 
"  Hinder  them,  master,  hinder  them.  Wliy,  if  they  i)rophesy  what 
will  become  of  thine  own  authority?"  I  fancy  I  see  his  venerable 
head  sink  upon  his  breast  and  he  saying:  "Indeed  art  thou  zealous 
for  me !  Would  that  all  the  people  of  God  were  pro])hets,  and  that 
God  gave  His  Spirit  to  them." 

Follow  that  man  to  the  top  of  the  mountr.in,  where  he  is  alone. 
See  the  man  who  could  stretch  forth  an  iron  hand  when  it  was  neces- 
sary, stretched  on  the  face  of  the  earth  and  seeking  forgiveness  for  his 
people,  and  when  his  prayer  was  not  answered,  "0,  if  Thou  wilt  not 
forgive  my  people  then  blot  me  out  of  the  book  that  Tiiou  hast  writ- 
ten." So  tender!  And  another  instance:  Before  his  death  he,  as 
you  know,  admonished  the  people  in  words  that  are  immortal.  After 
forty  years  of  such  labor  as  he  had  expended  he  admits  that  his  peo- 
ple have  learned  almost  nothing,  and  I  must  quote  Emerson,  who 
says,  "It  is  in  the  nature  of  great  men  that  they  should  he  misunder- 
stood." But  with  the  tenderness,  with  the  thoughtfulness  of  a  father 
11 


162  ETHICS. 

he  did  not  scold  his  people  before  the  shadow  of  death  fell  upon  him. 
Why,  he  says,  not  "you  are  ignorant,"  "you  are  hard  hearted,"  "you 
are  blind,"  "you  are  stubborn."  Listen!  "  But  God  has  not  yet, 
my  dear  people,  given  you  a  heart  to  understand  nor  eyes  to  see  nor 
ears  to  hear."  Do  you  hear  that  tenderness  iu  these  words?  "God 
has  not  given  you  the  light  you  need." 

They  say  that  that  man  Avas  not  a  man  at  all,  but  it  is  the  simple 
creation  of  the  nation's  fancy.  Glorious  fancy  !  We  should  worship 
him,  for  where  has  the  nation's  love  and  veneration  ever  produced  a 
picture  like  it?  It  appears  to  me  as  if  it  had  been  painted  in  three 
great  panels.  The  first  period,  the  period  of  storm  and  stress,  where 
he  undertook  the  delivery  of  his  people,  but  God  was  not  in  it  and  so 
he  failed.  And  then  the  second  period  of  retirement,  of  solitude,  of 
self-absorption,  of  preparation  for  the  great  path;  then  tlie  final 
picture  shows  us  the  man  of  action,  the  man  of  energy,  the  man  of 
insight,  and  the  picture  closes  with  the  words,  "No  man  knows 
his  grave  to  this  day."  Lonely  he  was  in  life,  lonely  he  was  in 
death;  but  though  no  man  knows  his  grave  all  tlie  world  knows 
his  life. 

Here,  bi-iefly,  I  will  say  something,  as  part  of  my  duty,  on  his 
influence.  I  can  not  circumscribe  it.  I  know  not  where  it  ends. 
Every  Christian  Church  on  earth  and  every  mosque  is  his  monument. 
Peace  is  the  foundation  stone,  the  historic  foundation  stone  on  which 
thev  all  rest,  and  tiiat  cross  over  the  church  on  which  tlie  man  is 
hung,  which  to  the  Christian  is  the  symbol  of  deity  itself,  where  he 
saitl  that  he  must  die  so  that  the  law  of  Moses  be  fulfilled.  And  the 
Arabian's  great  master,  Mohammed,  why,  he  is  overflowing  with 
praise  when  the  son  of  Amram  comes  to  his  mind.  Five  hundred 
millions,  at  least,  acknowledge  him  their  master.  Five  hundred  mil- 
lions more  will  bow  to  his  name.  I  know  not  what  human  society  can 
be  or  become  and  allow  that  name  to  be  forgotten. 

Are  his  doctrines  to  be  abolished  ?  For  two  centuries,  the  first 
two  centuries  of  the  Christian  Church,  no  other  Bible  was  known  but 
the  Old  Testament,  and  to-day  iu  every  synagogue  and  temple,  and  on 
every  day  and  occasion  of  prayer,  when  his  own  followers  come  to  the 
sacred  shrine,  the  whole  mystery  hidden  there  is  the  law  of  Moses. 
And  they  take  it  in  tlieir  hands,  and,  Oh,  how  often  I  have  seen  iu 
my  youth  that  scrtjll  bedewed  with  the  tears  of  the  poor  suffering  Jew, 
and  they  lift  it  up  again  and  say,  "This  is  the  law  that  Moses  laid  be- 
fore the  ])eoplc  of  Israel."  It  is  done  so  at  this  very  moment,  at  this 
verv  hour  of  our  .Sabbath,  and   I   thank  God    from    my  whole   heart, 


THE   GREATNESS    AND    INFLUENCE   OF   MOSES.  163 

and  I  feel  inclined  almost  to  say,  "Now  let  thy  servant  go,"  that  from 
the  Jewish  synagogue  I  could  come  here  among  you  followers  of  other 
masters,  disciples  of  other  teachers,  pilgrims  from  many  lands;  that  I 
could  stand  up  in  your  midst,  and  feeling  that  your  heart  and  your 
soul  and  your  sympathy  is  with  me,  simply  repeating,  "This  is  the 
law  that  Moses  has  laid  before  us  Israelites." 


164  ETHICS. 


HUMAN  BROTHERHOOD  AS  TAUGHT  BY  THE  RELKHONS 

BASED  Oi\  THE  BIBLE. 


By  dr.  K.  KOHLER. 


To  Chicago  belongs  the  credit  of  having  rendered  her  World's 
Fair  a  World's  University  of  arts  and  industries,  of  sciences  and  let- 
ters, of  learning  and  religions.  Humanity,  in  all  its  manifestations  of 
life  and  labor,  in  all  its  aspirations  and  problems,  is  there  exhibited 
and  finds  a  voice.  And  the  grandest  and  most  inspiring  feature  of 
the  unique  spectacle  is  the  Religions  Parliament,  which,  in  trumpet  tones 
resonant  with  joy  and  hope,  peals  forth  the  great  truth  of  the  Brother- 
hood of  Man  based  upon  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

(a)    THE   BROTHERHOOD    OF   MAN. 

Thanks  to  our  common  education  and  our  religious  and  social 
progress  and  enlightenment,  the  idea  of  the  unity  of  man  is  so  natural 
and  familiar  to  us  that  we  scarcely  stop  to  consider  by  what  great  strug- 
gles and  trials  it  has  been  brought  home  to  us.  We  can  not  help  dis- 
cerning beneath  all  differences  of  color  and  custom  tiie  fellow-man,  the 
brother.  We  perceive  in  the  savage  looks  of  the  Fiji  Islander,  or  hear 
in  the  shrill  voice  of  the  South  African,  the  broken  records  of  our 
history  ;  but  we  seldom  realize  the  long  and  tedious  road  we  had  to 
walk  until  Ave  arrived  at  this  stage.  We  speak  of  the  world  as  a 
unit — a  beautiful  order  of  things,  a  great  cosmos.  Open  the  Bible  and 
you  find  creation  still  divided  into  a  realm  of  life  above  and  one  be- 
low— into  heaven  and  earth,  only  the  Unity  of  God  comprising  the 
two  otherwise  widely  se[»arated  and  disconnected  worlds,  to  lend  them 
unity  of  purpose,  and  finally  bring  them  under  the  sway  of  one  em- 
pire of  law.  Neither  does  the  idea  of  man,  as  a  unit,  dawn  upon  the 
mind  of  the  uncivilized.  Going  back  to  the  inhabitants  of  ancient 
Chaldca,  you  see  man  divided  into  groups  of  blackheads  (the  race  of 
Ham)  and  redheads  {Adam)  ;  the  former  destined  to  serve,  the  other 
to  rule.  And  follow  man  to  the  very  height  of  ancient  civilization, 
on  the  beautiful  soil  of  Hellas,  where  man,  with  his  upward  gaze 
{Anthropos),  drinks  in  the  light  and  the  sweetness  of  the  azure  sky  to 
reflect  it  on  surrounding  nature,  on  art  and  science,  you  still  find  him 


HUMAN    BKOTFIF:itHOOD    AS    TAUGHT    BY  THE    RELIGIONS,  ETC.     105 

clinging  to  these  old  lines  of  demarcation.  Neitlier  Plato  nor  Aris- 
totle would  regard  the  foreigner  as  an  equal  of  the  Greek,  but  con- 
sider him  forever,  like  the  brute,  fated  to  do  the  slave's  work  for  the 
born  master — the  ruling  race. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  prejudice  is  older  than  man.  We  have  it 
as  an  inheritance  from  the  brute.  The  cattle  that  browse  toi^ether  in 
the  field  and  the  dogs  that  fight  with  each  other  in  the  street,  will  alike 
unite  in  keeping  out  the  foreign  intruder,  either  by  hitting  or  by  bit- 
ing, since  they  can  not  resort  to  blackballing.  They  have  faith  only 
in  their  own  kin  or  race.  So  did  men  of  different  blood  or  skin  in 
])rimitive  ages  face  one  another  only  for  attack.  Constant  warfare 
bars  all  intercourse  with  men  outside  of  the  clan.  How,  then,  under 
such  conditions,  is  the  progress  of  culture,  the  interchange  of  goods 
and  products  of  the  various  lauds  and  tribes  brought  about,  to  arouse 
people  from  the  stupor  and  isolation  of  savagery? 

Among  tlie  races  of  Shnn,  the  Ethiopians  have  still  no  other 
name  for  man  than  that  of  SJieba — Sabean.  Obviously,  the  white  race 
of  conquerors  from  the  land  of  Sheba  refused  the  blackheads  found 
by  them  on  entering  Ethiopia  the  very -title  of  man,  not  to  mention 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  man.  Yet  how  remarkable  to  find  the 
oldest  fairs  on  i-ecord  held  in  that  very  land  of  Sheba,  in  South 
Arabia,  famous  from  remotest  times  for  its  costly  spices  and  its  pre- 
cious metals !  Under  the  protection  of  the  god  of  light,  the  savage 
tribes  would  deposit  their  gold  upon  the  tables  of  rock  and  exchange 
them  for  the  goods  of  the  traders,  being  safe  from  all  harm  during  the 
festive  season  of  the  fair.  Under  such  favorable  conditions,  the 
stranger  took  shelter  under  the  canopy  of  peace  spread  over  a  bellig- 
erent world  by  the  scepter  of  commerce.  What  a  wide  and  wonder- 
ful vista  over  the  centuries  from  the  first  fairs  held  in  the  l)alsam  for- 
ests of  South  Arabia  to  the  World's  Fair  upon  the  fairyland  created 
by  modern  art  out  of  the  veiy  prairies  of  the  Western  Hemisphere! 
And  yet  the  tendency,  the  object,  is  the  same — a  peace-league  among 
the  races,  a  bond  of  covenant  among  men  ! 

It  is  unwise  on  the  part  of  the  theologian  to  underrate  the  influ- 
ence of  commerce  upon  both  culture  and  religion.  Religion  is,  at  the 
outset,  always  exclusive  and  isolating.  Commerce  unites  and  broad- 
ens humanity.  In  widening  the  basis  of  oui-  social  structure  and 
establishing  the  unity  of  mankind,  trade  had  as  large  a  share  as 
religion. 

The  Hebrews  were  a  race  of  shepherds,  who  were  transformed 
into  fiirmers  on  the  fertile  soil  of  Canaan.  In  both  capacities  they 
were  too  much  attached  to  their  land — being  dependent  either  upon 


166  -   KTHICS. 

the  grass  to  pasture  their  flocks  or  upon  the  crops  to  feed  their  house- 
holds— to  extend  their  views  and  interests  beyond  their  own  territory. 
When,  therefore,  Moses   gave   them   the  laws  of  righteousness  and 
trutli  upon  which  humanity  was  to  be  built  anew,  he  did  not  venture 
to  preach    at  once   in  clear  and   unmistakable  terms  the  great  funda- 
mental principle  of  the  unity  and  brotherhood  of  man.     He  simply 
taught  them  :   "  Hate  not  thy  brother  iu  thine  heart !    Bear  no  grudge 
against  the  children  of  thy  people,  but  that  thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself;  I  am  the  Lord  !  "    He  would  not  tell  them  :   "  Love  all 
men  on  earth  as  thy  brethren  !"  for  the  reason  that  there  could  be  no 
brotherhood  so   long  as   both  the  material  and  religious  interests  col- 
lided   in    every    way,    and    truth    and  justice   themselves   demanded 
warfare  and  strut):gle.     Monotheism  was  more  than  any  other  religion 
an  isolating  power  at  first.     It  was  in  times  of  prosperity  and   peace, 
when  Jews  Avere  first  brought  into  contact  with  the  great  trading  na- 
tion of  Phcienicia,  that  the  idea  of  man  widened  with  the  extension  of 
their  knowledge  of  the  earth,  and  they  beheld  in  the  people  of  the  hot 
and  the  cold  zone,  in  the  black  and  blonde-haired  men,  in  the  Cauca- 
sian   and   African    races,    offspring   of    the   same    human   ancestors, 
branches  of  the  same  parent  stock,  children  of  Adam.     At  the  great 
fairs  of  Babylon  and  Tyre,  where  the  niercliants  of  the  various  coun- 
tries and  remote  islands  came  with  their  worldly  goods  for  their  seKish 
ends,  a   higher  destiny,   the   great  hand   of  Divine  Providence,   was 
weavino;  the  threads  to  knit  the  human  race  together.     And  in  one  of 
these  solemn   moments  of  history,  some   of  the  lofty  seers   of  Judali 
caught  the  spirit  and  spelled  forth  the  message  of  lasting  import :   "All 
nations  of  the  earth  shall  send  their  treasures  of  gold  and  spices,  and 
their  products  of  human  skill  and  wisdom  on  horses  and  dromedaries, 
on  wagons  and  ships  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem  ;  yet  not  for  mere  barter 
and  gain,  but  as  tokens  of  homage  to  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  whose 
name  shall  be  tlie  sign  and  banner  of  the  great  brotherhood  of  man." 
This  is  the  idea  pervading  the  latter  part  of  Isaiah.     No  sordid  trading 
after  the  fashion  of  the  Canaanites,  but  truth    and  knowledge  will  be 
freely  offered   on    the  sacred    heights   of  Jerusalem.     Such    was    the 
vision  of  Zechariah   prompted   by  the  sight  of  the  fairs  held  in   the 
Holy  City.     (See  Movers,  Phonizier  II  3,  145.)     It  was  the  idea  of  a 
great  truce  of  God   amidst  the   perpetual   strife  of  the  nations  wdiich 
they    conceived    of  and    forecast    when    announcing    the    time    when 
"swords  shall  be  turned  into  ploughshares  and  war  shall  be  no  more." 
Never  would  the  tenth  chapter  of   the  book   of  Genesis,  with  the 
lists  of  tlie  seventy  nations,  have  been  written  to   form    the   basis  for 
the  storv  of  .\(lam  and  Noah,  the  pedigree  of  man,  and  at  the  same 


HUMAN    BROTHERHOOD  AS    TAUGHT    BY    THK    RELIGIONS,   ETC.     \iu 

time  the  Magna  Cliarta  of  hunianitj',  had  not  the  niereliaiit  sliip  of 
the  Phoenicians  opened  this  wide  world-encompassing  view  for  tlie 
Jew  to  cause  him  to  behohl  in  tlie  many  types  of  men  the  one  and 
the  same  man.  It  was  on  tiie  Tarshish  ship  that  the  propliet  Jonah 
had,  amidst  storm  and  shipwreck,  to  learn  the  great  lesson  that  the 
heathen  men  of  Ninevah  have  as  mucii  claim  on  the  paternal  love  and 
forgiving  mercy  of  Jehovah  as  the  sons  of  Israel  have,  as  soon  as  they 
recognize  him  as  their  God  and  Ruler.  Who  dares  ask  tlie  question  : 
"  Who  is  ray  neighbor?"  after  having  once  read  in  the  grand  book  of 
Job  the  words  :  "  Did  I  despise  the  cause  of  my  man-servant  or  maid- 
servant when  they  contended  with  me?  What  then  shall  I  do  when 
God  riseth  up?  Did  not  he  that  made  me  in  the  womb  make  him, 
and  did  not  he  fashion  us  in  the  same  mold?"     (Job  xxxi,  13.  15.) 

The  Talmud  contains  an  interesting  controversy  between  Rabbi 
Akiba,  the  great  martyr  hero  of  the  time  of  the  last  Jewish  war  with 
Rome,  and  his  friend  Ben  Azzai :  The  former  maintained,  like  Hillel 
and  Jesus  before  him,  that  the  Golden  Rule,  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself"  (Levit.  xix,  18),  is  the  leading  princi|)le  of  the  Law.  Ben 
Azzai  differed  with  him,  saying:  "  This  does  not  explicitly  state  who 
is  included  in  tlie  law  of  love,"  and  he  pointed  to  the  first  verse  of  the 
fifth  chapter  in  Genesis:  "This  is  the  book  of  creation  of  man;  in 
the  likeness  of  God  has  he  created  man."  Here  he  said  the  principle 
is  laid  down  :  "  Whosoever  is  made  in  the  image  of  God  is  included 
in  the  law  of  love." 

No  better  commentary  can  be  given  to  the  Mosaic  commandment 
than  that  furnished  by  Ben  Azzai.  Cut  loose  from  the  rest  of  the 
Biblical  writings  many  a  passage  concerning  God,  and  man  still  has 
an  exlusively  national  character,  betraying  narrowness  of .  view.  But 
j)resented  and  read  in  its  entirety,  the  Bible  begins  and  ends  with 
vian.  Do  not  the  prophets  weep,  pray,  and'  hope  for  the  Gentiles  as 
well  as  for  Israel  ?  Do  not  the  Psalms  voice  the  longing  and  yearning 
of  man?  What  is  Job  but  the  type  of  suffering,  struggling,  and  self- 
asserting  man.  It  is  the  wisdom,  the  doubt,  and  the  pure  love  of  man 
that  King  Solomon  voices  in  prose  and  poetry.  Neither  is  true  priest- 
hood nor  prophecy  monopolized  by  the  tribe  of  Abraham.  Behold 
Melchizedek,  Salem's  priest,  holding  up  his  hand  to  bless  the  patriaich. 
And  do  not  Balaam's  prophetic  words  match  those  of  any  of  Israel's 
seers?  Noqe  can  read  the  Bible  with  sympathetic  spirit  but  feel  tliat 
the  wine  garnered  therein  is  stronger  than  the  vessel  containing  it; 
that  the  Jew  who  speaks  and  acts,  preaches  and  prophesies  therein, 
represents  the  interests  and  principles  of  humanity.  When  the  Book 
of  books  was  handed  forth  to  the   world,  it  was  offered,  in   the   words 


168  ETHICS. 

of  God  to  Abrahiim,  to  be  a  blessing  to  all  families  of  man  on  earth. 
It  was  to  give  man  one  God,  one  hope,  and  ojie  goal  and  destiny. 

(b)    THE  FATHERHOOD  OF  GOD  THE  BASIS  OF  MAn's  BROTHERHOOD. 

We  can  easily  discern  the  broadening  influence  of  classical  cult- 
ure exercised  upon  the  Jews  that  spoke  and  wrote  in  Greek.  Under 
the  invigorating  breeze  of  the  philosophy  of  Alexandria,  Moses  was 
made  to  teach  in  the  manner  of  Plato,  and  Noah  and  Abraham  to 
practice  all  the  virtues  of  Pythagoras;  Philo,  Josepluis,  and  St. 
Paul  endeavored  alike  to  batter  down  the  walls  separating  Greek  from 
Jew,  the  unwritten  laws  of  x\thens  being  identified  with  the  Noachian 
laws  of  humanity,  the  practice  of  wliich  opened  the  gates  of  eternal 
bliss  for  the  Gentile  as  well  as  for  the  Jew.  All  the  more  stress  I  lay 
on  the  claim  that  only  the  monotheistic  faith  of  the  Bible  established 
the  bonds  of  human  brotlierlii<od.  It  was  the  consciousness  of  God's 
indwelling  in  man,  or  the  Biblical  teaching  of  man  being  God's  child 
that  rendered  humanity  one. 

Even  though  the  golden  rule  has  been  found  in  Confucius  as  well 
as  in  Buddlia,  in  Plato  as  in  Isociates,  it  never  engendered  true  love 
of  man  as  brother  and  fellow-worker  among  their  people  beyond  their 
own  small  circles.  The  Chinese  sage,  with  his  sober  realism,  never 
felt  nor  fostered  tlie  spirit  of  seif-surreuder  to  a  great  cause  beyond  his 
own  state  and  ruler.  And  if  the  monk  Gautama  succeeded,  by  his 
preaching  on  the  world's  vanities,  in  bridling  the  passions  and  soften- 
ing the  temper  of  millions ;  planting  love  and  compassion  into  every 
soul  throughout  the  East,  and  dotting  the  lands  with  asylums  and  hos- 
pitals for  the  rescue  of  man  and  beast,  he  also  checked  the  progress 
of  man,  while  loathing  life  as  misery  without  comfort,  as  a  burden 
of  woe  without  hope  of  relief,  dissolving  it  into  a  purposeless  dream, 
an  illusion  evanescing  into  nothing.  And  what  were,  after  all,  the 
great  achievements  and  efforts  of  man,  to  the  proud  Greek,  -if  the 
rulers  of  heaven  only  looked  down  with  envy  upon  his  creation,  and 
Prometheus,  the  friend  of  man,  had  t(j  undergo  a  life's  endless  torture 
as  a  penalty  for  having  stolen  the  spark  of  fire,  the  secret  of  art  for 
the  mortals,  from  the  jealous  gods.  Neither  Pindar  nor  Plato  ever 
conceived  of  a  divine  plan  of  tlic  doings  of  man.  No  Thucydides 
nor  Herodotus,  ever  inquiied  after  the  beginnings  and  ends  of  human 
history  or  traced  the  various  people  back  to  one  cradle  and  one  ofi- 
ppring.  Not  until  Alexander  the  Macedonian  with  his  conquests  in- 
terlinked the  East  and  the  West,  did  the  idea  of  humanity  loom  up 
before  the  minds  of  the  cultured  as  it  did  before  Judea's  sages  and 
seers.      Only   when    antiquity's   })i-i(h!   was    lowered    U)  the  dust,   and 


HUMAN    BROTHERHOOD    AS   TAUGHT    BY  THK    RELKilONS,  ETC.     169 

philosopher  aud  priest  found  their  strength  exhausted,  nuiu,  suffering, 
sorrowing,  weeping,  sougiit  refuge  from  the  approaching  storm,  yearn- 
ing for  fellowship  and  hrotherhood  in  the  common  woe  and  misery  of 
a  world  shattered  within  and  without.  But  then  neither  the  Stoic,  iu 
his  overbearing  pride  and  self-admiration,  nor  the  Cynic,  with  his 
contemptuous  sneer,  could  make  life  worth  living. 

It  was  the  Bible  offered  first  by  Jew,  then  by  Christian,  and,  in 
somewhat  modified  tones,  by  Moslem,  that  gave  man,  with  the  benign 
Ruler  of  the  ages,  also  a  common  scope  and  plan,  a  common  prospect 
and  hope.  While  to  the  Greek — from  whom  we  have  borrowed  the 
very  name  of  ethics — goodness,  righteousness,  virtue,  were  objects  of 
admiration,  like  any  piece  of  nature  and  of  art,  beautiful  and  pleas- 
ing, and  life  itself  a  plaything,  the  Bible  made  life,  with  all  its  eftorts, 
solemn  and  sacred,  a  divine  reality.  Here  at  once  men  rose  to  be  co- 
workers with  God,  the  successive  ages  became  stages  of  the  world's 
great  drama,  each  country,  each  home,  each  soul,  an  object  of  divine 
care,  each  man  an  image  of  the  Divine  Father.  True  enough,  this 
conception  of  the  God-likeness  of  man  is  as  much  Platonic  or  Pytha- 
gorean as  it  is  Biblical.  Still  there  the  relation  is  all  one-sided. 
There  is  no  more  mutual  response  in  the  Greek  system  than  there  is 
between  the  string  of  the  musical  instrument  aud  the  great  orchestra, 
between  the  citizen  and  the  law  of  the  state.  There  no  deep  calls  to 
the  deep,  no  spirit  answers  the  spirit.  Man  follows  the  magnetic 
pole  of  the  right  and  the  good,  but  lacks  courage  to  fling  fear  and 
fate  to  the  wind  and  take  fast  hold  of  life,  with  all  its  tears  and  sor- 
rows, trusting  in  a  great  God  who  leads  man  through  toil  and  trial 
to  ever  higher  paths  of  righteousness  and  goodness.  It  was  the  Bible 
which,  holding  God  up  to  mankind  as  the  pattern  of  a  great  worker 
for  truth  aud  justice,  furnished  life  with  a  living  ideal,  ^vith  a  pro- 
pelling power,  a  forward-moving  force,  rendering  man  a  toiler  after 
the  likeness  of  God  for  living  aims  and  lasting  purposes.  Take  the 
word  Goodness  in  Plato.  It  is  not  the  outflow  of  a  paternal  heart 
that  fiuds  blessedness  in  love.  It  is  a  fountaiu  that  works  benefi- 
cently, but  knows  it  not.  Take  the  Platonic  term  Bighfeoiisncss.  It 
is  a  plan  of  equity  and  symmetry  that  rounds  off  every  thing  to  per- 
fection in  the  wide  universe,  yet  not  a  power  that  enriches  while  tak- 
ing, that  comforts  while  exacting  aud  demanding  sacrifice.  The 
Biblical  idea  of  God's  Fatherhood  renders  the  very  inequalities  of  men 
the  basis  of  a  higher  juctiee.  Just  because  you  are  endowed  with  a 
strong  arm,  the  feeble  brother  claims  your  help.  Just  because  you 
are  richer  than  your  brother,  God  holds  you  to  account  for  his  wants 
and  feelings.     Do  you  possess  a  better  faith,  a  higher  truth?     All  the 


1 70  ETHICS. 

more  you  are  enjoined  to  enlighten,  to  clieer,  to  befriend  him   who  is 
in  doubt  and  despair. 

There  is  no  partiality  with  (rod.  The  weaker  member  in  the 
human  household,  therefore,  must  be  treated  with  greater  compassion 
and  love,  and  every  inequality  readjusted  as  far  as  our  powers  reach. 
"If  thou  seest  one  in  distress,  ask  not  who  he  is.  Even  though  he 
be  thine  enemy,  he  is  still  thy  brother,  appeals  to  thy  sympathy; 
thou  canst  not  hide  thine  eyes;  I,  thy  God,  see  thee."  Can,  along- 
side of  this  Mosaic  law,  the  question  be  yet  asked,  Who  is  my  neigh- 
bor? Thou  mayst  not  love  him  because  he  hateth  thee.  Yet,  as 
fellow-man,  thou  must  put  thyself  into  his  place,  and  thou  darest  no 
longer  harm  nor  hate  him.  Even  if  he  be  a  criminal,  he  is  thy 
brother  still,  claiming  sympathy  and  leniency.  Sinner  or  stranger, 
slave  or  sufferer,  skeptic  or  saint,  he  is  son  of  the  same  Father  in 
Heaven.  The  God  who  hath  once  redeemed  thee  will  also  redeem 
him. 

Are  these  the  principles  and  maxims  of  the  New  Testament? 
I  read  them  in  the  Old.  I  learned  them  from  the  Talmud.  I  found 
their  faint  echo  in  tiie  Koran.  The  Merciful  One  of  Mohammed 
enjoins  charity  and  compassion  no  less  than  does  the  Holy  One  of  Isaiah, 
and  the  heavenly  Father  of  Jesus.  We  have  been  too  rash,  too 
harsh,  too  uncharitable,  in  judging  other  sects  and  creeds.  "  We 
men  judge  nations  and  classes  too  often  only  by  the  bad  examples 
they  produce;  God  judges  them  by  their  best  and  noblest  types,"  is 
an  exquisite  saying  of  tlie  Rabbis.  Is  there  a  race  or  a  religion 
that  does  not  cultivate  one  greatf  virtue  to  unlock  the  gates  of  bliss 
for  all  its  followers?  Hear  the  Psalmist  exclaim  :  "This  is  the  gate 
of  the  Lord,  the  righteous  enter  into  it."  No  priest  nor  Levite  nor 
Israel's  people  enjoy  any  ])rivilege  there.  The  kind  Samaritan,  as 
Jesus  puts  it  in  his  parable;  the  good  and  just  among  all  men,  as 
the  Rabbis  express  it  (Sifra  Aclire  INIoth,  13),  find  admission.  No 
monopoly  of  salvation  for  any  creed.  Righteousness  opens  tlie  door 
for  all  the  nations.  Is  ttiis  j)latform  not  broad  enough  to  hold  every 
creed?  Must  not  every  system  of  ethics  tiiid  a  place  in  this  great 
brotherhood,  with  whntcvci-  virtue  or  ideal  it  emphasizes?  Is  iiere 
not  scope  given  for  every  honest  endeavor  and  each  human  craving, 
for  whatever  cheers  and  iii.-pires,  ennobles  and  relines  man,  foi-  every 
vocation,  profe.ssion,  or  skill  ;  for  whatever  lifts  dust-born  man  to 
higher  standards  of  goodness,  to  higher  statc-^  of  blessedness? 

Too  long,  indeed,  have;  Chinese  walls,  ri'ared  by  nations  and 
sects,  kept  man  from  his  brother,  to  rend  humanity  asunder.  Will 
the  principles  of  toleration  surtice?     Or  shall  Lessing's  parable  of  the 


HUMAN  BROTHERHOOD  AS  TAUGHT  P.Y  THE  KELIGIONS,  ETC.       171 

three  ring?;  plead  for  equality  of  Church,  Mosque,  and  Syuagogue? 
What,  then,  about  the  rest  of  the  creeds,  the  great  Parliament  of  Re- 
ligions? Aud  what  a  poor  plea  for  the  father,  if,  from  love,  he  cheats 
his  children,  to  find  at  the  end  he  has  but  cheated  himself  of  their 
love.  No.  Either  all  the  rings  are  genuine  and  have  the  magic 
power  of  love,  or  the  father  is  himself  a  fraud.  Trulh  an<l  Love,  in 
order  to  enrich  and  uplift,  must  be  firm  and  immutable,  as  God  him- 
self. If  truth,  love,  and  justice  be  the  goal,  they  must  be  my  fellow- 
raan's  as  well  as  mine.  And  should  not  every  act  and  step  of  man 
and  humanity  lead  onward  to  Zion's  hill,  which  shall  stand  high  above 
all  mounts  of  vision  and  aspiration,  above  every  single  truth  and 
knowledge,  faith  and  hope,  the  mountain  of  the  Lord  ?  There,  high 
above  all  the  mists  of  human  longings,  the  infinite  glor}'  of  Him 
dwells,  wh  )m  angels  with  covered  faces  sing  as  the  Thrice  Holy,  and 
whom  all  the  mortals  praise  as  the  God  of  Truth — El  Einefh,  as  the 
R-ibbis  put  it;  Aleph,  the  beginning;  Mem,  tlie  middle,  and  Tav,  the 
end — the  Alpha  and  the  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last. 


i 


HISTORY. 


THE  SHARE  OF  THE  JEWISH  PEOPLE  IN  THE  CULTURE 
OF  THE  VARIOUS  NATIONS  AND  AGES. 

By  (IOTTHARD  DEUTSCH,  TH.D. 


There  exists  a  tendency  iu  our  age  to   belittle  every  merit.     The 
very  spirit  of  criticism   soon  degenerates  into  hypercriticism.     The 
latter  word  being  a   popular  expression  of  the  orthodox  clergy  of  all 
denominations  who,  not  willing  to   refute  their  opponents'  argument, 
content  themselves  iu  denouncing  it,  it  will  have  to  be  explained. 
Hypercriticism  is  criticism  misled  by  the  desire  to  produce  surprising 
results.     Just  as  orthodoxy  is  pre-occupied  by  the  desire  to  establish 
what  it  believes  without  any  further  proof,  so  the  hypercritics  are  con- 
vinced beforehand  that  what  for  centuries  was  believed  to  be  an  estab- 
lished fact,  is  a  mere  illusion.     The  same  spirit  which  delights  in  the 
denial  of  Shakespeare's  poetical  genius  will  rejoice  in  the  denial  of  the 
influence  which  the  Jewish  spirit  has  produced  in  the  world  from  the 
time  when  the  Greek-speaking  nations  first  learned  of  the  wonderful 
treasury  in  the   biblical  literature  up  to  our  time,  where  there  is  no 
realm  of  science  to  which  Israel  has  not  contributed  to  a  considerable 
degree.     While  there  is  a  zeal  iu  discovering  a  similarity  of  thought 
between  Indian,  Pei'sian,  or  any  other  remote  folklore,  and   our  own 
'thought,  be  it  as  insignificant  as  it  mav,  traceable  to  accidental  causes 
or  even  questionable  in  its  meaning,  there  is  the  same  zeal  active  to 
disprove  Jewish  literature  and  thought  as   sources  of  our  culture. 
While  I  undertake  to  show  the  remarkable  participation   by  the  Jews 
iu  all  branches  of  human  work,  I  shall  carefully  abstain  from  all  as- 
sumptions and  resort  to  facts  only. 

When  we  wander  through  the  vast  field  of  Jewish  history,  we 
are  at  once  struck  by  the  remarkable  influence  of  the  Bible.  The 
numerous  editions  of  the  whole  book  and  its  parts,  since  when  in  1477 
the  first  edition  of  the  Psalms  and  in  1488  when  the  first  edition  of 
the  wiiole  book  appeared,  the  fact  that  the  number  of  copies  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible  and  its  translations  distributed  by  the  bible  societies 
since  the  beginning  of  this  century  are  calculated  to  amount  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions,  the  fact  that  the  greatest  poets  of  all  civil- 
ized  nations,   viz.,  Milton,  Racine,   Goethe,   and   numberless  others, 

(175) 


176  iirsTORY. 

drew  their  inspiration  from  the  Book  of  Books,  the  further  ftict  that 
this  book  exists  in  more  than  two  hundred  translations,  would  suffice 
to  prove  that  the  influence  of  Jewish  thought  on  humauity  can  hardly 
be  overestimated.  From  the  time  wheu  K.  Joshua  den  Hyrcanos  made 
Job's  (xviii,  15)  words,  "  though  he  slay  me,  yet  I  will  wait  for  him," 
the  ideal  of  piety  (Sotah  27b)  up  to  the  day  when  Grace  Aguilar, 
that  example  of  noble  WDUuiuliood,  uttered  these  woi'ds  of  consolation 
on  her  death-bed,  how  many  souls  have  been  elevated  and  strength- 
ened, consoled  and  comforted,  cultivated  and  I'endered  better  by  the 
words  of  this  immortal  book  ! 

Another  great  historic  fact  by  which  Judaism  turned  over  a  new 
leaf  in  the  development  of  humanity,  is  the  rise  of  Christianity. 
However  different  the  standpoint  of  the  critical  historians  may  be,  in 
this  they  agree  that  Jewish  thought  formed  the  bulk  of  Christianity. 
It  was  F.  Ch.  Baur  who  siiowed  the  affinity  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Esscnes  and  those  of  the  early  Christians.  We  find  the  priucipal 
featui-es  of  the  new  doctrine,  celibacy,  asceticism,  contempt  of  worldly 
pleasure  and  abstinence  from  politics.  More  consistently  than  Baur, 
we  find  D.  F.  Strauss,  his  disciple,  advocating  the  idea  of  the  con- 
nection of  Jewish  lore  with  early  Christian  literature.  Mostly  guided 
by  Lightfoot's  "Home  Hebraicae  ct  Tabnudicae,"  Strauss  proclaimed 
the  principle  that  the  inii'acles  of  the  New  Testament  and  consequently 
the   whole  history  of  the  life  of  Jesus  can   only  be  explained   by  the 

4 

mi(h-asliic  rule  of  R.  Berechjah  (Koheleth  rabba  i,  9)  pc'K")  S*^!1J1D 
p"l^^t   '?^t"ljI   l^  '^  the  savior  of  the  future  shall  act  like  the  savior 

of  the  past."  However,  Strauss,  although  very  reticent  in  regard  to. 
positive  results,  still  believes  in  a  liistorical  Jesus,  the  son  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  of  Nazareih,  who  died  on  the  cross  for  his  broad  views  in 
regard  to  the  obligation  of  the  Mosaic  law. 

]More  advanced  are  the;  ideas  of  the  Dutch  theologians,  headed  by 
A.  l>.  Loman,  whose  '^(luaesiiones  Pmdinae"  make  the  Jesus  of  the 
gospel  a  mere  personification  of  tiie  Jewish  niartyr-ideal,  and  even 
deny  the  authenticity  of  any  of  Paul's  epistles.  In  the  same  direction 
wrote  the  anonymous  Englishman,  the  author  of  the  book  "Antiqna 
Mater,  a  Study  of  Chrittian  Origins,"  and  the  Swiss,  Rudolph  Steck,  in 
"JL'er  Galaterbrief,  etc.,"  both  of  wiiom  took  up  the  half'-ibrgotten  views  of 
the  eccentric  Bruno  Bauer,  witii  the  only  difference  that  they  explain 
Christianity  from  Jewish  ideas,  while  the  latter  dei'ived  it  mostly  Irom 
Seneca's  Stoic  })hilosophy.  To  cliaracterize  tlie  difference  between  the 
principles  laid  down  in  Straus.s's  ''Life  of  Jem  a"  and  those  of  the  mod- 
ern   Dutch    scholars,   we    would    .say  that,  according   to   Strauss,  the 


CULTURK   OF   TIIK    VARIOUS    NATIONS    AND    AGES.  177 

writers  of  the  gospel  acted  like  Lord  Byron  in  composing  liis  "3/au- 
fred"  taking  a  remarkable  historic  personality  as  a  subject  of  their 
picture  of  an  ideal  life,  permitting  themselves  all  the  liberty  of  a  poet; 
while  Loman  and  his  followers  would  ascribe  to  the  Gospel  the  same 
character  as  to  Goetiie's  ''Faust"  or  Robert  Hamerling's  ^'Ahasveriis," 
where  the  popular  myth  is  tiie  only  essence  of  the  history,  notwith- 
standing its  details  and  the  trustworthy  witnesses  who  testify  to  its 
facts. 

There  is  a  series  of  New  Testament  ideas  which  can  be  explained 
only  by  the  talmudic  sources,  as,  fur  instance,  the  personification  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  C'lpn  mi  which  the  rabbis,  in  order  to  avoid 
anthropomorphism,  placed  instead  of  God.  That  the  spirit  of  God 
appears  in  the  disguise  of  a  dove  is  also  a  frequent  rabbinical  figure 
of  speech  (Math,  iii,  16;  Berakhot  3a).  Undoubtedly  a  rabbinical 
reminiscence  is  the  explanation  of  Pentecost  as  the  day  of  revelation. 
There  is  no  trace  of  this  in  the  Old  Testament  scripture  (or  rather 
to  the' contrary),  s^ince  Shabuoth  has  no  fixed  date,  and  therefore 
can  not  have  been  celebrated  in  lemerabrauce  of  a  historic  fact. 
And  besides,  even  the  form  in  wliich  the  story  of  Pentecost  is  given 
in  the  Acts  (ii,  3)  reminds  us  of  I'abbinical  fiction.  According  to  the 
rabbis,  the  Thora  was  revealed  in  seventy  languages,  or,  as  the  Midrash 
puts  it,  in  seventy  tongues.  It  was  only  natural  that  the  new  doctrine 
should  not  be  short  of  its  predecessor  in  any  of  its  miraculous  con- 
comitants. Just  as  tlie  idea  of  revelation  was  transplanted  into 
Christianity  in  its  midrashic  garb,  so  were  a  great  many  otlier  tliculog- 
ical  concepts.  The  term  "gehenua"for  hell  is  of  purely  rabbinical 
origin;  the  so-called  Lord's  prayer  is  a  selection  of  rabbinical  phrases 
from  the  invocation  D^!3C*DC*  ^^*!D^?  to  the  end.  Only  in  a(h)pting 
this  view  can  we  escape  the  difficulties  in  the  chronology  of  the  last 
supper,  to  the  solution  of  which  Prof.  Chwolson  recently  dedicated  a 
whole  book.  The  difficulty,  briefly  stated,  is  this:  While  according 
to  the  first  three  gospels  Jesus  on  the  first  day  of  the  feast  of  unleav- 
ened bread  commanded  the  disciples  to  make  preparations  for  tlie 
Passover  (Mt.  xxvi,  17;  Mk.  xiv,  22;  Lk.  xxii,  7),  we  find  in  John 
(xiii,  1)  th;it  it  was  before  the  first  day  of  the  Passover,  and  to  remove 
every  iloubt,  it  is  expressly  stated  later  on  (xviii,  28)  that  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  the  Jews  would  not  enter  the  praetorium.  lest  they 
should  defile  themselves  and  became  unfit  to  offer  the  Pascha. 

All  expedients  to  explain   away  this  difticulty  remain    futile;   the 
oidy  possible  solution   being  that,  just  as  the  early  Christian  church 
transformed   the  Jewish  account  of  revelation  into  a  Christian  narra- 
12 


178  HISTORY. 

tive,  so  the  same  men  transformed  the  idea  of  the  covenant  into 
Christian  shape.  Had  God  made  a  covenant  with  Israel  when  they 
left  Egypt,  it  was  necessary  that  He  shonld  renew  His  covenant,  now 
that  it  had  a  different  meaning;  or,  to  explain  it  more  clearly,  the 
early  Christians  celebrated  the  old  Jewish  Passover  until  they  became 
aware  that  it  was  for  them  meaningless.  On  the  other  hand,  this  fes- 
tival wa.s  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of  the  Judeo-Christians  to  be 
dispensed  with  entirely.  So  it  became  necessaiy  to  place  it  on  a  dif- 
ferent basis.  That  the  Judeo-Christian  ti'adition  made  it  more  accord- 
ing to  the  old  ritual,  while  the  Helleuo-Christian  tradition  wanted 
Jesus  to  depart  from  the  Jewish  custom  as  far  as  possible,  is  evident. 
•  Bv  this  explanation,  we  avoid  the  difficulty  of  explaining  the  words  of 
Jesus:  "  take,  eat,  this  is  my  body,"  etc.  (Mat.  xxvi,  26.29;  Mark  xiv, 
22.25;  Luk.  xxii,  Ki),  which,  containing  a  prediction  of  the  following 
events  and  expressions  of  a  later  and  notoriously  dogmatic  idea,  could 
not  be  understood  when  coming  from  the  mouth  of  a  mortal  man,  and 
not  without  accepting  to  a  certain  extent  the  dogmatic  view  whi<th  the 
church  holds  concerning  the  Lord's  supper. 

Thus  we  see  how  far  Jewish  custom,  thought,  and  exegesis  worked 
to  produce  the  ideas  which  made  the  essential  part  of  Christian  belief, 
and  we  are  not  too  bold  in  tracing  the  kernel  of  the  gospel,  "all 
things  therefore  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you, 
even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them"  (Mat.  vii,  12),  to  the  well-known  say- 
ing of  Hillrl:  l^ayn  ih  "|")nn^  ^^D  ^^yn,  "What  is  hateful 
unto  thee  thou  shalt  not  do  unto  thy  neighbor"  (Sabbath  81a). 
^Moreover,  the  addition   in   Matthew:    "for  this  is   the  law  and   the 

« 

])rophets,"  shows  the  acquaintance  with  the  original,  rT^IDn   ?D   1* 

N*u*1"l'l)  "l^'NI  n^D,  with  the  only  difference  that,  instead  of  "the 
law  and  the  rabbinical  interpretation,"  the  author  said  "  law  and 
prophets,"  which  proves  the  secondary  character  of  this  reading,  just 
as  the  change  of  the  negative  form  of  this  sentence  of  Hillel  into  the 
affirmative  is  a  proof  of  development. 

It  is  very  interesting  to  behold  how  in  certain  places  the  nndrashic 
form  of  a  sentence  is  the  pattern  of  the  evangelical  form  of  putting  it. 
In  the  gos])el  we  read:  "Thou  hypocrite,  cast  out  first  the  beam  out 
of  thine  own  eye;  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  the  mote  out. 
of  ihy  l)rother's  eye."  One  sees  clearly  that  a  l)eam  in  one's  eye  is  so 
extravagant  a  figure  of  speech  that  it  could  hardly  be  original.  Let 
us  look,  therefore,  at  the  parallel  expression  in  the  Talmud.  There 
(Arachin   1()!i;   T>afhra   lob)  we   read   a  coniplaint    that   in   our  time 

hardly  any   one  is  able  to  reprove,  for  if  one  would   .*ay,   DD*p    /TtD 


CULTURE    OF   THE    VARIOUS   NATIONS    AND    AGES.  179 

^OC*  r^tD,  "  tJike  out  a  mote  from  between  thy  teeth,"  they  would 

answer  him,  "TT}/  ^2*2  Hip  ^1£0,  "take  the  beam  out  of  thine 
eyes."  Here  one  can  see  clearly  that  tlie  talmudic  form  is  original. 
It  is  a  common  experience  that  one  mildly  reminded  of  a  shortcoming 
in  his  character,  a  mote  which  remained  between  his  teeth  from  a 
toothpick  which  he  had  used,  will  regard  it  as  an  offense,  and  say  to 
his  critic:  "  You  have  not  a  mote,  but  a  beam,  and  not  between  your 
teeth,  but  in  your  eyes."  Be  it  that  some  code  had  the  word  "l^^CT 
falsely  changed  into  "1*^^^,  or  that  it  became  corrupted  in  the  mouth  of 
the  people,  evei'y  body  can  see  the  fact  that  the  Talmud  has  here  the 
original  and  the  gospel  the  secondary  reading. 

Let  us  give  another  evidence  from  tiie  seemingly  genuine  Christian 
ideas  of  opposition  to  the  obligatory  character  of  the  law.  It  is  gen- 
erally admitted  that  this  main  point  of  Christian  doctrine  was  not 
clearly  stated  at  its  beginning.  It  passed,  just  as  other  ideas,  through 
certain  stages  of  development.  In  Matthew  (v,  17.21),  we  find  the 
theory  of  unchaugeableness  of  the   law  expressed,  while  in  1  Cor.  vii, 

17,  and  1  Rom.  iii,  30,  the  keeping  of  the  law  is  given  to  every  body's 
choice;  and  finally,  in  Gal.  v,  2.4,  the  observation  of  the  law  is  a 
falling  away  from  grace,  which  corresponds  to  the  words  of  Luke  xvi, 

18,  that  law  and  prophets  were  only  until  John.  The  improbability 
of  one  man  having  taught  in  a  career  of  not  over  three  years  so  em- 
phatically discrepant  opinions  forces  us  to  the  conclusion  that  first 
Christianity  taught  a  more  conservative  doctrine,  just  as  Luther,  after 
having  promulgated  his  ninety-five  articles,  still  professed  allegiance 
to  the  Pope;  and  John  Wesley,  after  the  disapproval  by  the  authori- 
ties of  his  "  method,"  would  not  sever  his  connection  with  the  official 
church. 

During  this  time,  the  liberal   Christian  view  of  the  obligation  of 
the  law  was  shared  by  many  prominent  Pharisean  teachers.     AVheu 

R.  Jochanan  ben  Zakkai  sai.l,  pHL^t:  D^tDH  iS*Sl  i<'2tJ'2  r\*2n  N*S. 
"a  corpse  can  not  defile  and  water  can  not  i)urify  "(Tanchuma  ad 
Num.  xix,  1),  it  reminds  us  of  the  saying  of  JNIark  (vii,  15),  "there  is 
nothing  from  without  a  man  that  going  into  him  can  defile  him." 
Furthermore,  we  find  the  disciple  of  R.  Jochanan  b.  Zakkai,  Eliezer  b. 
Hyrkanos,  expressing  similar  ideas,  especially  in  regard  to  prayer. 
He  says,  "  He  who  makes  his  prayer  a  formality,  his  prayer  is  no  de- 
votion "  (Berakhot  38b),  which  is  very  much  like  the  idea  ex- 
pressed in  Matthew  (vi,  7).  The  same  R.  Eliezer  was  indeed  sus- 
pected of  affiliation  with  the  Christian  congregation  of  Galilee.     This 


180  HISTORY. 

is  the  only  sense  we  can  make  out  of  the  confused  talnmdic  legend 
(Aboda  zara  17a)  of  tlie  report  of  his  being  banished  by  Rabban 
Gamaliel  (Mezia  59b),  of  Imma  Shalom's,  his  wife's,  disputation  with 
Christians  (Sabbath  106a).  Moreover,  in  Koheleth  rabba  (i,  9),  we 
hear  about  a  disciple  of  R.  Joshua,  R.  Eliezer's  contemporary,  and  a 
disciple  of  R.  Jonathan,  that  they  joined  the  Christian  congregation. 
And  especially  about  the  disciple  of  R.  Joshua  we  are  told  that  the 
"  Minees"  induced  him  to  ride  on  an  ass  on  the  Sabbath,  which  would 
coincide  with  the  tradition  of  the  early  Christian  teaching  that  "  tiie 
Sabbath  is  made  for  man"  (Mk.  ii,  28),  which  is  nothing  but  a  rah- 

biuical  idea,  ny^'^  jniDO  DilkS*  \S*'l  HniD!:  ny^'  DdS  (Mechil- 
tha  Kithissa,  ed.  Weiss,  p.  110).  With  this,  we  may  duly  conclude 
our  proofs  that  Christianity,  as  it  was  developed  during  the  first  cen- 
tury A.  C,  derived  its  doctrines,  its  thoughts,  and  its  forms  of  ex- 
pression from  rabbinical  Judaism,  and  Christianity  is  that  form  of 
Judaism  which  has  conquered  the  civilized  world. 

JEWISH-ALEXANDRIAN    PHILOSOPHY. 

Christianity  is  a  product  of  historical  development,  and  as  such 
it  must  have  had  more  than  one  cause.  We  might  say  Judaism  is  its 
mother,  and  Greek  philosophy,  especially  Stoicism  and  Neo-Platonism, 
is  its  father.  And  here  we  already  observe  the  peculiar  feature  of  tiie 
Jewish  spirit  which  we  can  hud  through  all  history,  and  which  had 
for  its  aim  the  combination  of  different  opinions,  not  a  mere  electicism, 
but  rather  a  chemical  ligati(m  which  created  a  new  product.  Such 
was  the  W'ork  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews.  In  Alexandria,  Jews  came 
in  contact  with  a  superior  mental  culture;  here  they  first  encountered 
an  independent  i)hilosophy;  here  they  found  researches  concerning 
God  and  the  world  not  based  on  any  tradition  ;  ethical  doctrines  not 
relying  on  any  authority ;  poetry  whose  authors  wrote  without  claim- 
ing to  be  instruments  of  God.  On  one  hand  they  were  forced  to 
admit  the  truth  of  this  scientific  view  ;  on  the  other  hand  they  would 
not  give  up  the  doctrines  of  their  own  faith,  endeared  to  them  by  re- 
ligious feeling  and  the  weight  of  tradition.  They  did  what  at  every 
critical  point  in  history  is  done  when  a  new  doctrine  comes  into  light, — 
they  made  a  compromise,  partly  accommodating  their  views  to  that  of 
Greek  science,  partly  retaining  their  own,  always  insisting  on  the  suj^e- 
riority  of  their  religion  to  the  results  of  science  whose  true  statements 
they  claimed  to  have  been  boi-rowed  from  the  pro[)hets  and  sages  of 
Israel. 

The  first  movement  in  that  direction  was  the  translation  of  the 


CULTURE   OF   THE    VARIOUS   STATIONS    AND    AGES.  181 

Bible  into  the  Greek  lauguage,  where  they  first  met  with  tlie  difficulty 
of  explaining  some  terms  and  concepts  which  in  the  Hebrew  original 
needed  no  explanation.  Then  they  had  to  take  into  consideration  the 
Greek  public,  before  which  they  did  not  like  to  appear  in  an  improper 
light,  and  finally  they  quite  honestly  introduced  some  ideas  which 
they  had  accepted  from  Greek  philosophy,  believing  them  in  fact  not 
only  not  contradicted  but  even  implicitly  taught  by  the  Bible.  Thus 
we  see  anthropomorphisms  avoided  in  this  translation  ;  so  instead  of 
"it  repented  the  Lord  that  He  had  made  man  and  it  grieved  Him  in 
his  heart,"  the  Septuagint  translated  :  "  and  God  considered  he-Qviir'/iii/. 
that  he  iiad  made  man  and  contemplated  it  (hevn/'/Sf/."'  Thus  we  see  a 
?novement  started  which  already  in  the  second  century  B.  C.,  and  still 
more  in  the  first,  assumed  the  task  of  our  philosophy  of  religion  as  it 
undisputedly  existed  up  to  the  time  of  Spinoza;  and  even  in  some  of 
the  later  systems  which  were  not  contented  to  explain  the  existence 
of  religion  and  to  classify  the  different  systems  but  endeavored  to  har- 
monize religious  conviction  and  scientific  results.  Sucli  ideas  occur- 
I'ing  in  some  of  tlie  Apocrypha,  as  Sirach  and  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 
have  been  put  forth  more  systematically  by  the  greatest  of  all  Jewish- 
Alexandrian  philosopliers,  the  one  who  closes  tliis  epoch  of  Jewish 
history  as  the  light  of  the  evening  transforms  a  beautiful  day  in 
autumn.  It  is  Pliilo,  the  Maimonides  and  Mendelsohn  of  the  first 
century  A.  G.  "  who  like  an  immense  basin  receives  all  the  small 
channels  of  Alexandrtan  exegesis  in  order  to  shed  its  waters  in  mani- 
fold branches  into  the  later  exegesis  of  Judaism  and  Christianity." 
(Siegfried,  Philo  v.  Alex.,  p.  27.) 

Let  me  quote  here  what  an  orthodox  Protestant  theologian  savs 
concerning  the  great  influence  of  this  Jewish  writer  on  the  mental 
achievements  of  the  world,  which  are  the  best  characteristics  of  the 
man.  "What  Hebraism,  says  J.  G.  Miller,  effected  in  life  in  ancient 
form,  the  belief  in  and  the  relation  to  the  one  God,  tliis  Jewish  Hel- 
lenism, by  the  aid  of  Gi'cek  philosophy,  was  destined  to  introduce  into 
the  science  of  the  world.  Philo  was  called  to  be  the  first  philosopher 
in  monotheistic  sense."  The  most  important  of  Phiio's  doctrines  is  the 
logos  idea.  The  origin  of  this  idea  was  purely  Jewish.  It  seemed 
irreconcilable  with  God's  infinity,  incorporeity  and  unchangeability 
that  he  should  speak,  act  or  even  create  the  world.  To  solve  this 
problem  Philo  invented  the  logos,  the  mediator  between  God  and  the 
world,  who  is  the  highest  of  all  divine  powers,  the  snnunit  of  the  great 
series  of  intermediary  beings.  (De  Cher.,  p.  112.)  This  logos  idea 
shows  manifold  similarities  with  the  Christian  doctrine  of  Jesus,  espe- 
cially as  it  is  given  in  the  gospel  of  St.  John,  where  Jesus  is  identified 


182  "  HISTORY. 

with  the  logos.  Philo  called  the  logos  "second  God"  (Quaes,  in  Gen. 
ii,  265)  and  the  "vicegerent  of  God"  (De  somn.  i,  600),  and  al- 
thousrh  the  loo-ns  is  identified  with  God's  wisdom  he  is  not  held  to  be 
one  with  the  divine  spirit  n-v^vua  ^doi:  (De  nuindi  opif.  vi,  14.  30.) 
It  is  tiie  logos  who  teaches  virtue  and  punishes  vice,  and  to  iiim  Piiilo 
assigns  an  important  part  in  the  divine  guidance  of  human. life,  for  he 
is  the  divine  prototype  of  humanit}'.  The  logos  is  the  eternal  high 
priest  and  atoner,  he  is  the  ideal  man  living  eternally  with  God  in  the 
invisible  world  of  ideas."  (De  somn.  i,  653,  De  opif.  32,  Leg.  alleg. 
i,  49.  62.) 

Who  could  hut  be  struck  by  the  nearly  literal  identity  of  this  idea 
with  that  contained  in  the  fourth  gosj)el  :  "  In  the  beginning  was  the 
logos  and  the  logos  was  with  God,"  We  can  therefore  hardly  contra- 
dict the  assertion  of  Bruno  Bauer,  who  called  Philonic  philosophy  the 
abridsjred  kernel  of  evangelical  historv  before  it  was  broui^ht  into  ac- 
tion,  and  the  Philonic  doctrine  of  the  logos  "  a  prologue  to  Christian- 
ity." The  original  \vork  of  Christianity  therefore  is  the  combination 
of  the  logos  with  the  national  Jewish  messianic  idea.  Thus  another 
phase  of  Judaism  has  passed  by,  which  proved  to  be  of  unparalleled 
influence  upon  the  history  of  the  civilized  world. 

THE   JEWISH-ARABIC    I'ERIOD. 

Another  epoch  in  history  where  the  Jews  participated  in  bringing 
nearer  to  the  world  the  best  achievements  of  thought,  is  the  Spanish- 
Arabic  age.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Semitic  nations  were  again  the 
teachers  of  humanity,  the  most  active  workers  in  the  advancement  of 
human  culture,  just  as  it  was  in  the  mystic  ages  when  Cadmus  (the 
man  from  the  east),  the  father  of  Eiiropa  (the  west),  had  brought  the 
Alphabet  to  the  Greeks.  Christianity  had  al)and()ned  philosophy;  it 
had  closed  the  academics  where  the  science  of  the  pagans  was  taught ; 
it  had  become  used  to  rely  on  the  force  of  arms  rather  than  on  the 
strength  of  arguments.  Besides,  the  Teutonic  nations  which  wore 
made  converts  to  Christianity  achieved  preponderance  over  their  former 
teachers,  the  cultivated  Romans,  and  this  was  another  strong  reason 
for  the  downfall  of  scieiice  in  tliat  part  of  ihc  world  which  fn-  four 
hundred  years  befoie  the  C-hristian  era,  and  still  two  centuries  later, 
had  produced  those  immortal  niounnicnts  of  human  culture  which  still 
are  tlie  poll  toward  which  our  needle  is  pointing. 

The  Arabians  had  learned  of  .Vristotlc's  work  l)y  the  medium  of 
Syrian  translations  which  came  to  their  hands  when  the  Islam  had 
extended  its  sway  to  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  On 
these  works  tliey  wrote  commentaries  and  composed  other  philosophical 


CULTURK    OF    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS    AND    AGES.  183 

b()(;ks  which  partly  by  mistake  of  the  credulous  people  of  that  tinie, 
partly  by  a  frauduleut  inteutiou  of  the  author,  were  believed  to  be 
genuine  works  of  the  founder  of  the  Peripatetic  school.  When  the 
dominion  of  the  Islam  was  established  on  the  Pyrenean  peninsula,  the 
Jews  acted  as  mediators  between  the  Mohammedan  and  Christian 
worlds,  translating  the  Arabic  works  into  Latin  and  bringing  tliem 
within  the  reach  of  Ciiristianity.  But  this  is  not  their  only  merit. 
They  were  later  on  themselves  influenced  by  the  grand  ideas  of  the 
Stagyrite,  and  adopted  tlieir  religious  views,  and  showed  them  not 
only  to  be  in  harmony  with  Aristotle's  teaching,  but  even  implicitly 
teaching  the  same  ;  and  this  method  again  stimulated  Christian  schol- 
ars to  try  the  same  with  their  own  doctrines. 

There  are  three  names  wliich  are  milestones  in  the  path  of  progress 
of  i)liilosophical  thought.  They  are  Salomo  ben  Gabirol,  Moses 
Maimonides,  and  Levi  ben  Gersou.  The  first  of  these  had  a  great 
influence  on  the  system  of  the  most  critical  among  the  scholastics,  on 
I)uns  Scotus,  and  in  his  book  "  Fons  Vitae"  is  quoted  by  all  tlie  lead- 
ing authors  of  the  scholastic  era  as  belonging  to  an  Arabic  philosopher 
by  the  name  of  Avicebron,  whose  identity  with  Gabirol  has  been  estab- 
lished beyond  doubt  by  Solomon  Mnnk. 

Moses  Maimonides,  the  greatest  of  all  Jewish  philosophers,  at  the 
same  time  an  authority  in  Jewish  theology,  was  the  teacher  of  Albertus 
Magnus,  the  "  doctor  wiiversalis,"  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  who  up  to  our 
time  is  regarded  as  the  mastermind  of  Catholicism.  His  chief  work, 
"  The  Guide  of  the  Perplexed,"  being  translated  into  Latin  shortly 
after  the  author's  death,  was  not  only  frequently  quoted  by  Albertus 
and  Thomas,  but  even  appreciated  by  modern  philosophers  as  Leib- 
nitz who  made  a  synopsis  of  it  for  his  own  studies.  Emile  Saisset,  a 
Catholic,  says:  "  Maimonides  is  the  forerunner  of  St.  Thomas  and  the 
Moreh  Nebuchim,  announces  and  prepares  the  ' mmina  theologiae.'"' 
His  demonstrations  of  the  existence  of  God  are  those  of  Maimonides. 
Albertus  again  appropriates  Maimonides'  ideas  of  creation  and  proph- 
ecy, and  if  one  compares  All)ertus'  treatise  <m  divination  (torn,  v,  pp. 
98-103)  and  his  treatise  on  creation  (torn,  ii,  pp.  325-334)  with  the 
corresponding  chapters  in  Moreh  (ii,  36.  37  ;  i,  74  ;  ii,  13.  14.  16.  17. 
19),  he  will  find  analogies  of  such  striking  character,  that  he  can  not 
but  admit  that  the  great  teachers  of  Ciiristianity,  who  for  centuries 
have  been  regarded  the  highest  authority,  and  are  still  regarded  as 
such  among  the  largest  denomination  of  Christians,  have  derived  sonie 
of  their  best  ideas  from  the  book  of  a  man  whom  Judaism  reveres  as 
its  greatest  teacher  since  the  time  of  the  prophets.  When  the  present 
pope  declared  Thomas  the  patron  of  all  studies  because  he  had  solved 


184  HISTORY. 

the  greatest  questions  which  perplex  the  s)ul  of  a  Christian,  he  canon- 
ized partly  tlie  doctrines  of  a  Jewish  philosopher. 

Next  to  Maimonides  I  have  to  mention  Levi  ben  Gerson,  whose 
commentaries  on  Averroes,  the  Arabic  commentator  of  Aristotle,  were 
highly  esteemed,  and  in  a  Latin  translation  "by  Jacob  Mantino  made 
accessible  to  the  Christian  reading  world.  Besides,  Levi  ben  Ger- 
son had  a  celebrated  name  as  astronomer.  The  part  of  his  book 
wherein  he  treats  on  an  astronomic  instrument  which  he  had  invented, 
was  translated  into  Latin  by  order  of  Pope  Clement  VL  Kepler  once 
wrote  to  one  of  his  Iriends  he  would  be  very  thankl'ul  if  he  could  pro- 
vide hiiu  with  a  copy  of  this  hook.  I  can  not  speak  of  all  Jewish 
men  of  science  and  literature  of  this  age,  and  therefore  chose  only 
ttiose  who,  bv  their  works,  exercised  a  remarkable  influence  on  the  de- 
velopment of  the  intellectual  world.  I  therefore  might  conclude  this 
part  of  my  lecture  by  quoting  the  words  of  a  competent  writer  on 
philosophy,  Ueberweg,  who  says  (Gesch.  d.  Phil.  II,  169):  "In  the 
thirteenth  and  f(»urteenth  centuries  the  philosophy  of  Arabic  Aristote- 
lians, persecuted  by  the  JNIohammedan  potentates,  found  a  refuge 
among  the  Jew.s  of  Si)ain  and  France,  especially  in  the  Provence,  who 
translated  the  Arabic  books  into  Latin  and  partly  commented  them. 
Bv  the  agency  of  the  Jew.s,  Arabic  translations  of  books  of  Aristotle 
and  Aristotelians  were  again  translated  into  Latin,  and  formed  thus 
the  first  communication  to  the  scholastics  of  Aristotelian  philosophy, 
who,  stimulated  by  this,  ])rocured  other  translations  of  Aristotle  di- 
rectly from  the  Greek."  Thus  the  Jews  acted  as  agents  in  bringing 
the  culture  of  the  past  and  remote  nations  to  their  neighbors  and  con- 
temporaries. They  acted  as  missionaries  of  culture,  just  as  did  the 
great  inventoi-s  and  discoverers  of  the  sixteenth  century,  being  the 
niessengers  of  one  nation  to  the  other. 

BIBLICAL   CRITICISM. 

Although  it  is  mv  intention  to  exclude  from  this  ti'catise  Jewish 
theolotjv,  it  being  rather  my  aim  to  show  Jewish  influence  ou  science 
and  literature  in  general,  I  see  fit  to  mention  one  name  whose  bearer, 
although  his  merits  lie  within  the  limits  of  biblical  exegesis,  Hebrew 
grammar  and  poetry,  deserves  to  be  classed  among  the  leading  spirits 
of  the  world.  I  refer  to  Abraham  Urn  Ezra,  the  first  bible  critic.  It 
was  he  who,  on  rational  grounds,  first  contested  the  ^losaic  authorship 
of  some  passages  in  the  Pentateuch,  which,  by  reference  to  later 
events  (Gen.  xxiii,  7;  xxii,  1-4  ;  Deut.  x.Kxiv,  1.  li2),  or  by  their  ex- 
planatory character,  give  evidence  of  their  later  origin.  It  may  be 
tliat  he  was  prompted  to  this  criiicism  by  his  antagonism  to  the  Kara- 


CUl/rURE   OF   THrC    VARIOUS   NATIONS   AND    A(JES.  185 

ites  ill  tlie  same  way  that  the  Catholics,  Jean  Astruc  and  Richard 
Simon  tried  to  overthrow  the  dogmatic  foundations  of  the  Protestants, 
showing  that  the  biblical  authority  is  not  established  beyond  doubt ; 
but  he  also  frequently  attacks  the  rabbinical  interpretation  of  the 
Mosaic  law  (Ex.  xxiii,  19;  Levit.  xxiii,  40),  and  still  nidre  fre- 
quently ridicules  the  haggadic  interpretation  of  some  historical  narra- 
tive in  the  Bible  (Gen.  xxiv,  1  ;  xlvi,  27).  Thus  Ibn  Ezra  became  a 
picmeer  of  biblical  criticism,  a  science  which  contributed  very  much  to 
the  enlightenment  of  the  world  and  to  the  purification  of  its  moral, 
philosophical  and  religious  concepts.  It  was  he  who  gave  the  first 
hints  to  Spinoza,  who,  in  his  "  Tractatus  Theologico-Politicus,"  helped 
to  disseminate  Ibn  Ezra's  teachings.  The  now  prevailing  doctrine  of 
the  Graf-Wellhausen  school,  with  its  revolutionizing  effect  on  the 
theology  of  this  country,  is  the  fruit  of  the  seed  sown  by  this  great 
scholar  who,  expelled  from  his  native  country  by  religious  fiinaticism, 
composed  his  great  commentary  on  the  Pentateuch  while  living  the 
life  of  a  tramp — a  picture  of  Isi'ael's  history  ! 

The  important  turn  in  human  civilization,  when  men  broke  loose 
from  the  chain  of  scholasticism  and  began  to  think  for  themselves,  to 
believe  in  Avhat  was  proven  by  the  laws  of  evidence  only,  and  to  go 
back  to  the  sources  of  every  tradition,  this  epoch-making  age  shows 
again  the  contribution  to  culture  by  Jews.  Just  as  the  humanists 
wanted  to  redeem  the  true  Aristotle  from  the  shackles  of  Averroes 
and  St.  Thomas,  so  it  was  their  goal  to  recover  the  true  Bible  from  un- 
der the  rubbish  which  misunderstanding,  ecclesiastical  dogmas,  and 
apologetic  tendencies  had  heaped  upon  it.  This  they  could  success- 
fully do  only  when  they  applied  to  Jews,  who  alone  at  this  time  pos- 
sessed the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  original.  Here  we  find  one  of 
the  builders  of  modern  thought,  who  put  only  one  stone  upon  the 
foundation  of  human  knowledge,  but  this  one  little  stone  is  very  well 
laid,  and  later  builders  in  laying  others  upon  it  need  not  be  afraid  that 
it  will  give  way  and  endanger  the  whole  structure.  This  compara- 
tively unknown  man  is  Elijah  Levita,  the  teacher  of  Cardinal  Egidio. 
It  was  his  merit  to  have  proven  beyond  doubt  that  the  vowel-points 
are  of  late  invention,  and  that  in  consequence  thereof  the  Hebrew 
text  of  our  Bible,  as  it  is  before  us,  is  of  comparatively  late  origin. 
This  theory  shook  more  than  any  thing  else  the  scholastic  doctrine  of 
the  "  Hebraica  Veritas."  But  beside  this  literary  merit,  Elijah  Levita 
and  many  other  Italian  Jews  deserve  credit  for  tiie  instruction  of 
learned  Ciiristians,  amongst  whom  there  is  prominent  the  noble  and 
scholarly  Johana  Reuchlin,  the  forerunner  of  the  Reformation,  the 
opponent  of  the  inquisition  which  just  at  that  time  attempted  to  spread 


1.86  HISTORY. 

the  glonm  of  ignorance  and  intolerance  over  Germany,  as  they  had 
just  succeeded  iu  accomplishing  in  Spain.  So  it  is  to  a  certain  extent 
due  to  the  Jews  tiiat  the  world  was  spared  the  pain  of  seeing  the 
misery  repeated  which  was  spread  around  the  fagots  erected  by  the 
disciples  of  Thomas  de  Torquemada  and  Peter  Arbues. 

THE  AGE  OF  REFORMATION  AND  KABBALA. 

One  might  be  justified  in  dividing  the  history  of  culture  into 
periods  of  rationalism  and  mysticism  ;  two  spiritual  powers  always 
fighting  each  other  and  at  the  same  time  each  one  helping  to  amend 
the  one-sideduess  of  the  other.  Tluis  we  find  in  the  age  of  the  re- 
formation these  two  powers  at  work,  the  I'ationalistic  criticism  playing 
havoc  with  baseless  dogmas  and  the  mystical  power  supplanting  the 
outward  ideal  of  piety  by  the  opposite  devotion  of  feeling.  A  classic 
example  of  this  two-fold  movement  we  find  in  Luther,  who  on  one 
hand  cruelly  destroyed  the  illusion  of  the  sacramental  character  of 
the  priesthood,  criticized  biblical  books,  speaking  of  "hay,  stniw,  and 
stubble  which  are  found  amidst  the  best  thoughts  of  the  prophets," 
while  on  the  other  hand  he  fought  the  scholastic  proofs  of  trinity  by 
the  assertion  of  au  inward  certainty  which  does  not  need  a  proof  at 
all.  We  have  seen  that  as  to  the  critical  movement  there  were  Jew- 
ish guides  who  leveled  the  path  before  the  reformers,  and  as  for  the 
mystic  inclination,  although  Jews  were  by  their  strict  adherence  to 
the  pitiless  law  rather  opposed  to  all  mysticism,  their  Kabbala  exer- 
cised a  great  deal  of  influence  even  there.  This  quasi-science  was 
eagerly  studied  and  recommended  by  Christians.  Johann  Renchlin 
in  his  defense  of  the  rabbinical  literature  believed  the  cabbalistic 
books  the  strongest  arguments  against  the  hostilities  of  the  Domin- 
icans and  their  worthy  protege,  the  converted  Jew,  Johann  Pfofler- 
korn.  Indeed  there  existed  side  by  side  with  criticism,  just  as  it  is 
in  our  time,  a  belief  in  occultism,  a  belief  that  ancient  times  and 
remote  countries  had  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  truth  foi'  which  we 
ardently  seek. 

One  of  the  earliest  writers  in  who.se  works  we  tinil  an  acquaint- 
ance with  cabbalistic  productions  is  the  Spanish  missionary,  Raymun- 
dus  LuUus  (d.  l'>15),  who  invented  a  miuMuoicchnical  method  (ars 
inventiva,demondratlva,  etc.),  by  which  certain  letters  written  in  math- 
ematical figures  represented  certain  concepts.  l)y  turning  those  fig- 
ures one  couhl  place  letters  in  different  connections  so  as  to  combine 
two  or  more  of  these  concepts  to  form  theological  or  philoso])hical  sen- 
tences. It  is  very  probable,  as  HelfiLM'ich  in  his  monography  on  Ilay- 
niundus  says,  that  the  Jews  initiated  him  into  their  eiil)balistic  system 


CULTURE   OF   THE    VARIOUS   NATIONS    AND    ACJES.  187 

and  this  suggested  to  liini  the  idea  to  apply  the  same  method  to  peda- 
gogical purposes.  This  conjecture  is  supported  by  Kaymundus  him- 
self, \\ho  calls  his  art  Kabbala,  and  describes  it  as  "  receptio  veritatls 
divinitus  revelatae ! " 

Next  we  have  Reuchlin,  whose  interest  in  the  Jewish  literature 
we  already  had  occasion  to  mention.  In  his  written  iirbitranient  on 
Jewish  literature,  which  he  had  to  give  at  the  command  of  Archbishop 
Uriel  of  Mayence,  he  expressly  takes  the  part  of  Kabbala  and  says 
that  Pope  Alexander  VI  had  recommended  the  study  of  the  Kabbala, 
and  Sixtus  IV  had  three  cabbalistic  books  translated  into  Latin. 
Reuchlin  says:  "  There  is  no  art  which  can  give  more  certainty  in  re- 
gard to  the  divinity  of  Christ  than  magic  and  Kabbala."  Even  be- 
fore the  time  of  Reuchlin  it  was  Count  Pico  de  Mirandola  who,  con- 
vinced of  the  strong  support  which  the  Christian  dogmas  coidd  receive 
from  cabbalistic  sources,  announced  a  public  disputatinn  at  Rome, 
where  he  offered  to  prove  this  assertion  (Graetz  Gesch.  viii,  243).  It 
was  at  this  turn  in  history,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  that 
mysticism  became  prevalent  both  as  a  reaction  against  the  meaningless 
formulas  of  Aristotelian  scholasticism  and  as  a  foreshadowing  of  criti- 
cism which,  dissatisfied  with  the  old  proofs  for  the  ecclesiastical  creeds, 
sought  refuse  in  the  mvsteries  of  Kabbala.  There  it  was  that  the 
civilized  world  found  in  Judaism  an  adequate  supply  for  its  temporary 
wants. 

SPINOZA. 

The  reformation  with  its  heralds,  the  luimanists,  had  destroyed 
the  foundation  of  medieval  conceptions.  This  h&d  to  be  supplanted, 
and  was  supplanted  by  a  new  philosophy  founded  by  Cartesius,  but 
consistently  elaborated  by  the  Jewish  philosopher,  Baruch  De  Spinoza. 
AVe  have  already  touched  upon  his  affinity  with  Abraham  Ibn  Ezra, 
aiul  we  may  add  that,  though  opposed  as  his  views  are  to  Judaism  and 
any  revealed  religion,  he  is  greatly  influenced  by  Maimouides.  It  was 
the  uncompromising  monotheistic  idea,  says  Kuno  Fischer,  wherein  lie 
the  fundamental  features  of  his  doctrine  which  recognizes  only  one 
real  existence,  one  substance,  of  whom  all  other  existences  are  only 
limited  manifestations,  the  difference  being  that  he  recognizes  no  pur- 
poses and  designs,  only  causes  and  effects.  His  system  stands  at  the 
threshold  of  modern  philosophy,  and  his  negation  of  petty  teleology 
will  forever  remain  an  acquisition  to  human  investigation,  just  as  Aris- 
totle's logic  and  Copernicus's  planetary  system  form  a  part  of  the  per- 
manent treasury  of  human  science.  Instead  of  explaining  his  system 
which  would  be  beyond  the  limits  of  this  paper,  I  may  be  permitted 
to  quote  some  of  the  greatest  thinkers  of  later  ages  in  their  judgment 


188  HISTORY. 

on  the  ideas  which  the  lonesome  philosopher  has  worked  out  in  his 
optical  shop. 

It  was  Lessiug,  the  poetical  genius  of  tlie  age  of  the  "Aufkla- 
rung,"  who  in  his  famous  conversation  with  F.  H.  Jacobi  a  few  weeks 
before  his  death,  said:  ''(vkcu  ~av  One  and  all,  I  don't  know  of  any 
thing  else.  If  I  should  name  myself  after  any  school,  I  know  of  no- 
body except  Spinoza."  The  same  Jacobi,  the  bitterest  opponent  of 
Spinoza,  confessed,  if  he  would  believe  in  metaphysics  and  its  effi- 
ciency, he  would  adhere  to  Spinoza  for  his  only  consistent  system. 
"  Such  a  calmness  of  the  spirit,"  Jacobi  says ;  "  such  a  heaven  in  rea- 
son as  this  clear  and  ]mre  head  has  created  for  himself,  few  men  have 
ever  tasted."  And  Schleiermacher,  in  his  lectures  on  religion,  pays  to 
him  the  highest  tribute,  saying:  He  stands  the  unique  and  unequaled 
nnister  in  his  art,  but  raised  above  his  guild  with  no  disciples,  with  no 
birthright." 

Next  to  Spinoza,  we  ought  to  mention  his  counterpart,  Moses 
^lendelsohn.  Wliile  the  farmer  believed  in  effects  only,  the  latter's 
plulosophy  is  based  on  design  ;  while,  according  to  the  former,  God 
has  no  personal  relation  to  n)an,  in  the  latter's  sytem  providence  oc- 
cupies tlie  foremost  place;  while  Spinoza,  although  not  formally  ab- 
juring his  faith,  remained  indifferent  to  Jews  and  Judaism,  INIendel- 
sohn's  life  work  was  devoted  to  the  elevation  and  promotion  of  his 
co-religionists.  It  is  no  wonder,  when  we  consider  these  differences, 
that  Mendelsohn  abhorre.l  Spinoza's  j)liilosopl)y  :  that  pantheism  and 
jitheism  were  to  him  identical;  that  he  regarded  it  a  gross  insult  to 
the  cherished  memory  of  liis  friend  when  Jacobi  called  Lcssing  a 
Spinozist.  But  what  has  Mendelsohn  done  for  the  world?  Well,  if 
he  had  not  done  any  thing  but  opened  the  way  to  civilization  for  mill- 
inus  of  his  co-religionists,  and  shown  them  by  his  exemjilary  life  that 
one  could  partake  in  the  highest  interests  of  the  world  and  still  re- 
main a  good  Jew,  if  he  had  not  done  any  thing  but,  by  his  transla- 
tion of  the  Pentateuch,  reached  and  uplifted  the  wretched  youth  who, 
living  among  savages  in  the  eastern  part  of  Eurojie,  was  yearning 
for  light  and  truth,  this  would  be,  in  my  opinion,  a  great  service  done 
to  mankind,  a  service  comparable  to  tiie  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
to  the  invention  of  the  method  for  the  instruction  of  the  l)lin(l,  to  the 
."Sanitation  of  an  insalubrious  country.  In  short,  Mendelsohn's  work  is 
equal  to  any  service  rendered  to  a  part  of  humanity  to  which  more  or 
less  every  service  done  to  humanity  has  to  be  reduced.  But  one 
might  add  in  his  life  there  was  a  service  rendered  to  humanity  at 
large  whom  he  delivered  from  their  prejudices,  especially  from  tiieir 
overestimation   of  Christianilv  ;    he   was  the   model    for  "  Nathan   the 


CULTURE    OF    THE    VARIOUS    NATIONS    AND    AGES.  189 

VVeise,"  in  uhom  German  literature  possesses  one  of  its  most  precious 
jewels.  Mendelsohn's  "  Jerimdem,"  his  introduction  to  ivianasse  beu 
Israel's  ^'Salvation  of  the  Jews,"  helped  to  spread  the  ideas  of  mutual 
toleration,  separation  between  ecclesiastical  and  civil  affairs,  and 
quickened  the  glorious  ideas  which  this  country  had  first  enacted  in 
its  statute  books  as  immutable,  unchangeable  laws  of  society. 

Treating  on  philosophy,  it  would  only  be  just  to  mention  Men- 
delsohn's protege,  Solomon  Maimon,  who,  grown  up  timnng  the  semi- 
barbarous  Lithuanians  without  any  school  education  and  without  any 
teacher  and  guide,  mastered  Kant's  philosophy  to  sucii  a  degree  that 
Kant  himself  was  astonished  to  find  such  an  able  interpreter,  and 
Maimon,  althougli  he  never  overcame  his  awkwardness  of  style,  is 
still  to  be  regarded  one  of  the  foremost  philosophers  of  the  Kantian 
school. 

JEWS    IN    THE    PRESENT    AGE. 

.  In  the  year  after  Mendelsohn's  death.  Count  Mirabeau  wrote  his 
essay,  "  Siir  Mendelsohn,"  etc.,  wheve'm  lie  recommended  the  uncon- 
ditional emancipation  of  the  Jews.  Since  that  tinie  the  Jews  have 
taken  part  in  all  branches  of  human  culture,  notwithstanding  the 
obstacles  which  narrow  prejudice  put  in  their  way.  There  is  no  de- 
partment of  human  culture  which  Jews  did  not  help  to  enrich.  Turn- 
ing to  art,  we  find  the  painters,  Philipp  and  Johann  Veith,  the  grand- 
sons of  Moses  Mendelsohn,  jNIoritz  0[)penheini  and  Leopold  Horowitz; 
the  sculptors,  Moses  Ezekiel  and  A.  Antokolsky  ;  the  musicians  and 
composers,  Meyerbeer,  Rubinstein,  Jacques  Halevy,  Joseph  Joachim, 
Jgnaz  ]Moscheles,  Jacques  Offenbach  ;  the  actors,  Eachel,  Felix, 
Bogumil,  Dawison,  Abraham  Dreyfuss,  Adolf  von  Sonnenthal,  Lud- 
wig  Bariiay.  Amongt  he  poets  and  writers,  we  have  Heinrich  Heine, 
Berthold  Auerbach,  Aron  Bernstein,  Moritz  Hartmann,  Julius  Roden- 
berg,  Fanny  Lewald,  Leopold  Kompert,  Hieronymus  Lorm,  S.  H. 
Mosenthal,  Adolf  L'Arronge,  Michael  Klapp,  Grace  Aguilar  (English), 
M.  A.  Goldsciimid  (Danish),  Ludwig  von  Doczi  (Hungarian),  a  list 
which  could  be  greatly  increased  by  prominent  journalists,  au)ongst 
whom  I  will  only  mention  Jacob  Kaufmann,  Ignaz  Kuranda,  Albert 
Wolf}',  of  the  Paris  Figaro,  and  Julius  Stetteuheim. 

If  we  look  at  the  scientific  productions  of  our  age,  we  might  safely 
say  that  there  is  no  department  of  science  and  no  language  of  civil- 
ized nations  in  which  Jews  did  nut  give  evidence  of  their  proficiency. 
Turning  to  medicine,  we  find  L.  C.  Jacobsen  (Copenhagen),  Ludwig 
Traube  (Berlin),  Schnitzler  (Vienna),  Roseustein  (Leyden),  See 
(Paris),  Lombroso  (Turin).  Among  the  jurists,  we  have  George  Jes- 
sel    (London),    Goldschmidt    (Berlin),    Solomon    jNEayer    (Frankfort), 


190  HISTORY. 

Gruenhut  (Vienna).  Among  the  i)hil()logers,  philosophers,  and  his- 
torians, we  see  the  celebrated  names  of  Gustav  Weil,  Theodor  Benf'ey, 
Adolphe  Franck,  James  Darmestetter,  G.  I.  Ascoli,  Jacob  Bernays, 
Ph.  Jaffe,  M.  Lazarus,  and  H.  Sleinthal,  some  of  whom  aie  laudable 
prnmoiers  of  the  religious  interests  of  Judaism.  Even  among  the 
great  travelers  and  explorers,  we  find  Jewish  names.  I  mention  I.  J. 
Benjamin,  H.  Vambery,  Emin  Pasha,  and  Ed.  Glaser. 

The  number  of  prominent  statesmen  is  so  much  the  more  significant 
as  Jews,  only  since  a  comparatively  short  time,  are  allowed  to  par- 
take in  the  political  life  of  the  nation.  We  have  in  England  David 
Salomons,  Lionel  Rothschild,  F.  H.  Goldsmith,  Worms,  Montagu, 
and  Lord  Beaconsfield,  who,  although  in  his  early  youth  converted  to 
Christianity,  always  retained  a  strong  love  for  his  people.  In  France 
we  have  Achille  and  Benoit  Fould  and  Adolphe  Cremieu.x,  who,  dur- 
ing the  hardest  crisis  which  his  country  had  to  endure,  hel[)ed  in  man- 
aging its  affaii's.  In  Germany  we  have  Gabriel  Riesser,  vice-pi'esideut 
of  the  first  German  j)arliament  ;  Johann  Jacoby,  Kosch,  Lasker, 
Bamberger,  besides  many  others  who  lendered  very  valualde  services 
to  the  different  federate  states  of  their  country.  In  Austria,  right  at 
the  beginning  of  constitutional  life,  a  Jew  was  the  most  popular  man 
in  the  empire.  In  the  first  parliament  there  were  four  Jewish  depu- 
ties, two  of  whom  were  rabbis.  Later  on  Ignaz  Kurauda  was  one  of 
the  most  influential  members  of  the  Reiehsrath ;  four  Jews  were 
l)eers  and  two  converts,  Glaser  and  Unger,  were  mini.sters,  as  was 
Friedenthal  in  Prussia,  which  fact  proves  that  a  Jew,  if  left  to  his 
])roper  sphere,  will  be  able  to  serve  his  country  and  mankiud.  In 
Hungary,  Jews,  from  the  beginning  of  the  revolution,  worked  for  the 
independence  of  their  country,  and  are  to-day  prominent.  I  mention 
the  secretary  of  state,  Ed.  Horn,  Wahrmann,  Franz  Chiiin,  the  son 
of  the  first  reform  rabbi,  etc.  In  Italy,  Senator  Isaac  Muirogonato 
and  Ijuzatlo,  minister  of  finance,  deserve  due  honor. 

In  connection  with  the  statesmen,  one  might  mention  the  numer- 
ous Jews  who  distinguished  themselves  in  finance  and  commerce,  al- 
though a  great  many  people  regard  this  rather  a  blemish  on  the  Jew- 
ish character.  But  it  .seems  to  n)e  that  so  long  as  the  honest  strife  to 
increase  one's  fortune  is  no  crime,  so  long  as  the  desire  to  secure  to 
his  children  so  much  as  to  enable  them  to  rt-sist  the  hardship  of  life  is 
regarded  a  paternal  duty,  so  long  as  people  who  have  amassed  a  for- 
tune; understand  the  duty  of  the  rich  to  be  to  take  care  of  the  destitute, 
.so  long  as  finance  is  regarded  a  science,  I  can  not  see  how  to  be  a  suc- 
cessful financier  shall  be  regarded  as  a  crime  in  a  Jew. 

Finallv  we  have  to  touch  on  the  noble  works  of  charitv,  in  which 


CULTURE    OF   THE    VARIOUS   NATIONS   AND    AGES.  191 

the  Jews  every-where  have  won  distinction.  There  are  hardly  more 
popnlar  names  in  this  respect  than  those  of  Moses  Montefiore  and 
Bnron  Hirsch,  whose  generosity  has  no  equal  in  history.  Besides, 
there  is  no  Jewish  settlement  of  any  importance  which  woidd  not  tes- 
tify to  the  truth  of  the  rabbinical  saying,  that  (iharity  is  one  of  the 
distinguishing  marks  of  Jewish  character.  We  can  only  mention 
very  few  of  the  Jewish  benefactors:  Jonas  Fraenkel,  the  founder  of 
the  rabbinical  seminary  at  Breslau,  built  a  hospital,  an  orphan  asylum 
and  a  home  for  the  aged  in  tluit  city ;  Joseph  von  Wertheimer  estab- 
lished the  first  kindergarten  in  Vieuna  ;  Prospero  Moses  Luria  be- 
queathed his  fortune  to  the  working  classes;  Sah^mon  Heine,  the 
uncle  of  the  great  poet,  founded  the  great  hospital  in  Hamburg; 
Jonas  Freiherr  von  Koeuigswarter  built  a  school  for  the  blind  at  Vi- 
enna; Hirsch  Kollisch,  a  man  in  moderate  circumstances,  built  by 
his  uutirino-  labor  the  institution  for  the  deaf  mute  in  the  same  citv; 
^^Ibert  Cohn  left,  as  almoner  of  the  Paris  house  of  Rothschild,  eternal 
traces  of  his  life  work. 

Judaism  stands  for  religion,  and  not  for  race.  Therefore  all  con- 
verts ought  to  be  excluded  from  this  treatise.  On  the  other  hand  it 
can  not  be  denied  that  early  impressions  have  a  great  influence  on  the 
development  of  the  character,  even  if  one  in  maturer  years  changes  his 
course  entirely.  Therefore  such  converts  as  Disraeli  and  Heine  belong 
to  Jewish  History.  How  much  the  more  have  we  to  include  in  it  the 
converts  to  other  religions,  who,  by  their  Jewish  education,  first  be- 
came conversant  with  religious  questions  and  susceptible  of  this  zeal 
which  they  used  in  the  service  of  the  new  faith  to  which  they  became 
converts.  Of  such  I  may  name  Bishop  Julian  of  Toledo  (seventh 
century),  who  wrote  a  book  to  refute  the  Jewish  argument  that  the 
Messiah  would  not  come  before  the  end  of  the  fiftieth  century  of  the 
world.  Of  more  importance  is  Pablo  Christiani,  from  Montpellier, 
the  famous  seat  of  rabbinical  learning,  who  arranged  the  four  days'  dis- 
putation in  the  royal  palace  of  Barcelona  (1263),  in  which,  on  the 
Jewish  side,  was  the  greatest  scholar  of  this  age,  Moses  ben  Nahmau. 
Abuer  of  Burgos,  known  under  his  Christian  name,  Alfonso,  suc- 
ceeded in  his  denunciation  of  the  Hebrew  prayer-book  as  containing 
anti-christiau  passages.  Solomon  Hallevi  was,  under  the  name  of 
Paulus,  Bishop  of  Burgos,  and  worked  for  the  conversion  of  his  co- 
religionists, one  of  whom,  the  grammarian,  Profiat  Du ran  Epliodi,  ridi- 

* 

culed  this  effort  in  the  biting  satire  "|^"^1D^{^   ^1^  ^l<-     Some  Jew-' 

ish  converts,  even   in.   our  time,  acquired   fame  in   the  service  of  the 
church,  as  the   venerable  Liebermann,  who  is  now  "on  the  road  to 


192  HISTORY. 

caiiouizatioi)  ;"  the  two  brothers  Ratisbonne,  one  of  whom,  Alfoiis 
Maria,  is  the  fouuder  of  a  religious  order;  Einanuel  Veith,  who  is 
counted  amongst  the  greatest  German  preachers  of  Catholicism,  and 
finally,  the  recently  consecrated  prince.  Archbishop  of  Olmuetz,  by  the 
nnn)istakable  name  of  Theodor  Kohn.  Even  the  late  Englisli  Car- 
dinal Howard  is,  according  to  the  hitherto  nncontradicted  statement 
of  the  "Bohemia,"  a  native  of  the  ghetto  of  Prague,  known  there 
under  the  name  of  Jacob  Austerlitz. 

In  the  Protestant  world  we  have  among  the  co-workers  of  the  re- 
formation, Tremellius  (d.  1580),  who  first  in  Italy  became  a  convert 
to  Catholicisn),  afterwai'ds  an  adherer  of  Calvin,  whose  friendship  he 
enjoyed,  and  whose  catechism  he  translated  into  Hebrew,  which,  like 
his  Latin  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  was  highly  appreciated  in 
the  reformed  church.  Besides  a  great  many  missionaries,  as  Chr.  D. 
Ginsburg,  de  le  Roi,  Adolph  Saphir,  etc.,  the  great  scholar  Paulus 
(Selig)  Cassel,  the  illustrious  church  historian,  August  Neander, 
formerly  David  Mendel,  who  defended  the  orthodox  dogma  of  Jesus 
against  the  attacks  of  David  Friedrich  Strauss,  and  finally  the  ex- 
pounder of  the  idea  of  the  Christian  state,  Friedrich  Julius  Stahl,  are 
very  prominent  characters  in  the  history  of  their  church. 

It  would  hardly  be  possible  even  to  enumerate  in  this  sketch  all 
the  scholars  in  the  different  branches  of  science;  all  the  statesmen,  art- 
ists, and  benefactors  of  Jewish  origin,  and  still  less  would  it  be  possi- 
ble to  give  the  hearer  an  insight  into  the  work  done  by  them.  I  there- 
fore may  say,  in  the  words  of  Isaiah  :  "Jacob  shall  not  be  ashamed, 
neither  shall  his  face  now  wax  pale  but  when  he  seeth  his  children, 
the  work  of  mine  hand;  in  the  midst  of  him  they  shall  sanctify  my 
name  ;  yea  they  shall  sanctify  the  Holy  One  of  Jacob,  and  shall  stand 
in  awe  of  the  God  of  Israel." 


PRESERVATION    OF   TflE   SCIENCES   IN    MIDDLE   AGES.  193 


CONTRIBUTION  OF  THE  JEWS  TO  THE  PRESERVATION  OF 

THE  SCIENCES  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


By  DK.  SA^tlTEL  SALE. 


The  Jews  luive  shared  much  the  same  fate  both  with  regard  to 
tlieir  religion  and  science.  The  more  mankind  have  exploited  them, 
the  more  they  were  persecuted  and  maligned.  The  greater  the  debt 
of  gratitude  due  them,  the  less  recognition  they  received.  No  one 
with  but  a  passing  knowledge  of  human  history  need  be  told  that  the 
religions  of  civilized  mankind  are  founded  on  the  principles  that  have 
come  from  Judea,  and  yet  strenuous  eiForts  have  been  made  at  all 
times,  not  excepting  our  own,  to  underrate  and  belittle,  if  not  entirely 
to  deny,  their  beneficial  influence  on  the  moral  and  mental  uplifting  of 
mankind.  It  is  a  stubborn  fact  that  will  not  yield  to  all  the  untoward 
powers  on  earth,  that  Israel  has  been  the  heart  of  all  mankind  in  a  re- 
ligious sense. 

If  in  the  realm  of  religion,  wherein  the  Jew  was  original  and 
creative  and  founded  an  ideal  that  has  captivated  the  world,  he  was 
subject  to  neglect  and  discredit,  we  need  not  be  surprised  that  he  was 
curtailed  of  his  just  meed  of  recognition  in  a  field  where  his  services 
were  less  obvious  and  less  open  to  the  uninitiated.  It  is  one  of  the  com- 
monest charges  brought  against  the  Jew  that  he  has  contributed  little 
or  nothing  to  the  sciences  and  their  pre.servation,  and  it  was  customary 
down  to  our  own  times  for  the  profouudest  historian  to  pass  him  by,  either 
without  any  mention  at  all,  or  to  speak  only  in  derogation  of  him.  Since 
the  revival  of  learning  and  letters,  however,  which  goes  back  to  the  days 
of  Rnppaport  and  Zunz,  it  is  no  longer  possible  to  ignore  the  Jews  as  a 
factor  in  the  culture  of  the  sciences  in  the  middle  ages  and  their  preser- 
vation for  all  times  to  come.  Indeed,  they  were  not  only  an  important 
factor,  but  they  were  the  only  means  and  instrument  by  which  at  that 
time  the  philosophy  of  the  ancient  Greeks  was  transmitted  to  the  Eu- 
ropean world.  The  Jews  were  the  only  people  of  whom  we  might  say 
they  had  no  middle  age,  an  epoch  of  intellectual  and  moral  decline. 
Notwithstanding  their  dispersion  and  oppression,  by  which  tliey  were 
deprived  of  all  Iniman  rights,  yea,  often  of  the  right  to  live,  they  busied 
themselves  about  their  own  literature  and  eagerly  engaged  in  the  study 
13 


194  HISTORY. 

of  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks,  so  that  they  preserved  for  others  as  well 
as  for  themselves  the  foundation  of  tlieir  moral  and  intellectual  life. 
Had  the  Jew  done  nothing  else  than  watch  with  jealous  care  and  de- 
votion his  own  sacred  literature,  which  has  f)und  its  way  into  the 
thought  and  sentiment  of  all  civilized  man,  we  could  not  well  over- 
estimate the  part  he  has  enacted  in  the  realm  of  science. 

The  Bible,  natundly,  was  the  object  of  deepest  concern-  to  the 
Jew,  and  about  it  the  intelligent  labors  of  the  learned  were  centered. 
To  their  unremitting  efforts  of  handing  it  down  unharmed,  and  at  un- 
derstanding it,  we  owe  its  preservation.  It  is  generally  believed  that 
the  science  of  Bible  criticism  is  purely  a  modern  product,  but  aside 
from  the  fact  that  all  subsequent  work  in  this  direction  would  have 
been  impossible  without  the  Hebrew  Bible,  which  the  Jews  had 
preserved,  it  is  moreover  true  that  the  learned  commentators  of  the 
middle  ages  had  already  begun  to  turn  their  minds  upon  problems 
which  have  been  solved  in  our  own  times.  Exegesis,  or  tlie  science 
of  a  proper  and  thorough  understanding  of  the  Bible,  had  always  been 
a  favorite  occupation  of  the  Jews,  but  it  was  only  when  the  sages  of 
the  middle  ages  cultivated  it  that  we  might  say  Bible  criticism  in  its 
real  sense  began. 

In  the  sixth  century,  the  genial  Saadya,  the  powerful  defender  of 
Rabbinical  Judaism  against  the  onslaught  of  the  Karaites,  translated 
the  Bible  into  Arabic.  Unfortunately,  we  have  but  frajrmeuts  of  this 
learned  work,  yet  they  enable  us  to  appreciate  the  high  estimate  which 
]Moliammedan  scholars  put  upon  it.  Saadya  places  reason  above  the 
Bible  and  the  Talmud  and  rationalizes  the  miracles  of  sacred  litera- 
ture. His  contemporary,  Chivi  of  Balk,  may  be  classed  among  the 
first  and  boldest  rationalists,  and  we  know  to  what  length  of  liberalism 
and  even  of  infidelity  he  must  have  gone,  when  the  enlightened  Ibu 
Ezra  indulges  of  him  the  somewhat  dubiously  pious  hope  that  his  bones 
may  be  ground  to  dust. 

The  religion  of  the  Jews  contains  no  ideas  that  lun  counter  to 
universal  experience  and  common  sense,  and  therefore  it  docs  not 
quail  before  the  inexorable  consequences  of  exact  science.  It  has 
never  set  an  interdict  on  free  thought,  and  always  admitted  of  the 
greatest  possible  latitude  in  the  exercise  of  reason. 

It  has  never  trembled  before  the  di-sclosures  of  the  boldest  re- 
search, since  into  its  essential  constitution  there  enters  no  element  re- 
pugnant to  reason  that  might  thereby  be  endangered  or  overtuined. 
It  hails  every  discovery  of  the  exact  sciences,  even  the  most  startling, 
as  the  sublimest  revelation,  destined  to  break  down  the  obstacles  and 
jiartition-walls  of  sectarian  jircjudicc  and  superstition,  and  by  leveling 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES  IN  MIDDLE  AGES.  195 

the  artificial  bai'riers  which  dogmatists  have  set  up,  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  ultimate  realization  of  the  grand  ideal  of  its  prophets,  the  fra- 
ternization of  all  men  upon  the  solid  basis  of  justice  and  love.  If  this 
is  so,  and  no  epoch  of  Jewish  history  furnishes  more  abundant  proof 
of  this  assertion  than  the  middle  ages,  in  which  the  Jewish  mind  was 
all  on  fire  with  scientific  thought,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  even 
our  rationalists  of  the  last  century  forestalled  by  such  men  as  Chivi 
of  Balk,  Jephet  and  Isaac  Ibn  Kastar,  all  of  whom  are  mentioned  by 
Ibn  Ezra,  their  worthy  successor. 

Abu'1-Wahd,  commonly  called  Kabbi  Jonah,  or  Morinus,  was  the 
first  to  raise  Bible  criticism  to  the  dignity  of  an  independent  branch 
of  research.  Ibn  Janah  has  become  the  father  of  Hebrew  lexicoerra- 
phy ;  we  might  say  that  he  created  the  syntax  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage, and  that  every  student  and  lover  of  the  sacred  tongue  has  sat 
•at  his  feet.  None  before  liim  and  few  after  him,  dow^u  to  our  own 
day,  have  so  thoroughly  penetrated  the  writings  of  the  Bible  in  all 
their  artistic  delicacy  as  Ibn  Janah.  All  preceding  eflTorts  in  this  de- 
partment of  science,  from  the  first  Karaitic  Bible  student  down  to 
Saadya,  Meuahem,  Dunasch,  and  Hayyuj,  seem  the  work  of  ap- 
prentices when  compared  with  that  of  Rabbi  Jonah.  He  was  the  first 
to  study  the  Bible  in  its  own  light  and  to  lay  down  principles  of  in- 
terpretation which  have  remained  regulative  in  the  realm  of  Bible 
science  ever  since.  Among  his  predecessors  were  Judali  ben  Koreisch, 
who  had  already  proved  that  Hebrew,  Arabic  and  Aramaic  were  cog- 
nate languages ;  Meuahem  ben  Saruk,  who  had  made  a  dictionary  of 
Hebrew  roots  which  was  enlarged  by  Dunasch  ben  Labrat ;  and  last 
but  not  least,  Jiidah  Hayyuj,  the  father  of  Hebrew  grammar,  the  first 
to  prove  that  the  roots  in  Hebrew  were  tri-literal.  When  we  consider 
the  magnitude  of  their  contriliutions  to  Semitic  piiilology,  and  their 
importance  in  making  an  exact  study  and  understaudiug  of  the  Bible 
possible,  we  can  not  put  too  high  an  estimate  on  their  work.  All  the 
latter  commentators  of  the  Bible  are  dependent  on  them. 

The  daring  yet  shrewd  Ibn  Ezra,  who  wore  the  mask  of  tradition- 
alism only  to  attack  it  with  greater  freedom  and  impunity,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  first  among  the  Bible  expounders  of  the  middle  ages 
who  came  nearest  to  modern  views  and  grounded  the  science  on  the 
strictest  j)rinciples  of  hermeneutics.  He  recognized  not  only  tliat  tiie 
latter  part  of  Isaiah  could  not  have  been  written  by  the  prophet  who 
lived  in  the  days  of  King  Uzziah,  but  he  also  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  there  were  parts  of  the  Pentateuch  which  had  not  beeu  writ- 
ten by  Moses,  notwithstanding  the  trick  that  he  has  of  condemning 
the  book  of  Isaac  Al-Kastar  as  worthv  of  the  fiames,  because  in  it  the 


196  HISTORY. 

latter  had  expressed  liis  belief  that  the  36th  chapter  of  Genesis  was 
written  in  the  days  of  King  Jehosaphat.  Nothing  is  more  evident 
from  almost  every  page  of  his  commentaries  on  the  Bible  that  none 
was  less  bound  by  tradition  than  he.  Ibn  Ezra  did  not  believe  in  the 
Davidic  authorship  of  the  Psalms.  It  is  needless  in  this  cursory 
review  of  the  activity  of  the  Jews  during  the  middle  ages  in  the  field 
of  Biblical  sciences  to  mention  the  names  of  all  the  most  important 
commentators,  but  we  can  not  pass  over  one  who,  though  by  no  means 
the  greatest  in  the  realm  of  Biblical  exegesis,  yet  on  account  of  the 
simplicity  and  popularity  of  his  commentaries  exercised  a  great  influ- 
ence over  the  religious  ideas  of  the  non-Jews.  We  mean  Solomon  ben 
Isaac,  commonly  called  Kashi.  His  writings  were  extensively  trans- 
lated and  used  by  Christians.  They  were  especially  drawn  upon  by 
the  Franciscan,  Nicholas  de  Ijyra  ( 1300-1  o40)  and  through  hi  in 
Rashi's  views  and  interpretations  became  current  in  the  Christian 
world.  It  was  through  Lyra  that  Luther's  ideas  of  the  Bible  were 
influenced  and  altered  to  such  an  extent  that  he  felt  himself  called 
upon  to  undertake  a  new  translation  thereof,  as  an  authority  against 
the  Vulgata  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Luther  was  indebted  to  Lyi-a 
so  largely  that  in  the  days  of  the  reformation   the  words  went  round  : 

"  Si  Lyra  non.  lyrasset, 

Lntherus  non  saltasset." 
"  Hiitt'  Lyra  nicht  geleiert. 

War'  Luther's  Tanzfest  nicht  gefeiert." 


&^ 


It  may  seem  strange  and  exaggerated  to  hear  this  view  expressed, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  without  the  precedent  contributions  of 
the  Jews  to  the  sciences  in  the  middle  ages  the  Protestant  reformation 
would  not  have  been  possible.  It  was*  upon  the  Bible  and  the  Bible 
alone,  that  Luther  stood  in  the  diet  at  Worms,  or  as  he  himself  said  : 
Hier  steh'  ieh,  ich  kann  nicht  anders,  Gott  helfe  mir. 

It  was  the  Bible  as  it  had  been  preserved  by  the  zeal  and  the 
learning  of  the  Jews  througiiout  the  dark  ages,  and  not  upon  the 
Latin  version  which  alone  was  considered  authoritative  by  the  Church, 
but  in  direct  opposition  to  it,  that  Luther  founded  his  movement. 
The  weapons  which  he  wielded  against  the  institutions  of  the  Chuicli 
were  forged  at  the  stithy  of  Jewish  learning.  Imagine  for  a  moment 
that  the  Jew  had  been  as  reckle.ss  of  liis  literary  heritage  as  were  the 
monks  of  the  dark  and  middle  ages  of  the  classical  treasures  buried 
within  the  dust  of  their  cloisters.  Imagine  if  you  can  that  the  Jew- 
had  scrawled  his  prayers  acro.ss  the  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  as  the 
Catholic  monks  did   their  breviaries  and  the  writings  of  the  Churcl) 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES  IN  MIDDLE  AGIOS.  19/ 

Fathers,  over  the  manuscripts  of  the  classical  authors  of  Greece  and 
Korae;  try  to  realize  in  thought  a  palimpsest  of  the  Bible  and  your 
thought  will  fail  you.  In  glaring  contrast  to  the  mental  indolence  of 
the  world  about  him,  the  mental  activity  and  unrest  of  the  Jews 
of  the  middle  ages  remind  us  forcibly  of  a  bee-hive  in  which  all  are 
busily  at  work  storing  away  the  precious  honey  of  religious  and  scien- 
tific thought  for  the  profit  of  mankind.  The  drones  of  those  days 
were  not  found  among  the  Jews,  but  the  sting  of  prejudice  from  which 
the  Jew  has  smarted  came  from  those  cells  in  which  no  honey  at  all 
was  made.  So  far  as  the  outward  details  of  the  lives  of  our  great 
men  of  this  age  are  concerned,  they  might  have  been  shut  up  in 
cloisters.  The  Jewish  celebrities  of  those  days,  both  among  the  Mus- 
lims and  the  Christians,  were  barred  from  public  life,  and  since  they 
were  always  given  over  to  the  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  reigning 
religion  and  threatened  by  the  fanaticism  of  the  populace,  they 
sought  peace  and  quiet  in  complete  isolation  and  retirement.  Ignored 
by  society,  the  Jewish  scholars  devoted  themselves  to  the  culture  of 
the  sciences  with  a  disinterested  zeal  which  offered  them  neither  honor 
nor  emolument.  The  physicians  were  the  only  ones  who  were  largely 
sought  after  and  attained  prominence  on  account  of  their  superior 
skill  and  knowledge.  The  lives  of  the  crowned  heads,  ecclesiastical 
as  well  as  secular,  were  almost  exclusively  intrusted  to  their  hands. 
To  single  out  only  one  name  from  the  many,  we  mention  Isaac  ben 
Suleiman  Israeli  (845-940)  who  w'as  called  to  Kairuan  by  Ziadath 
Allah  as  his  physician  in  ordinary,  and  when  Ziadath  in  turn  was 
overcome  by  Ubaid  Allah,  who  founded  a  great  empire  in  Africa, 
Isaac  Israeli  became  his  trusted  physician.  His  renown  spread  far 
and  wide,  and  he  was  always  surrounded  by  students  who  came  from 
a  great  distance  to  profit  by  his  instruction.  At  the  request  of  the 
Chalif  he  wrote  eight  books  on  the  science  of  medicine,  the  best  of 
which,  according  to  competent  judges,  is  that  on  fevers.  He  was 
never  married,  and  when  reproached  for  leaving  no  heirs,  he  replied 
that  his  work  on  fevers  would  preserve  his  name  and  fame  better  than 
children.  His  books  were  translated  into  Hebrew,  Latin  and  Spanish, 
and  were  diligently  studied  by  the  votaries  of  ^Esculapius.  A  Chris- 
tian physician,  Coustantine  of  Carthage,  the  founder  of  the  medical 
school  at  Salerno,  filched  his  works  and  published  several  of  them 
under  his  own  name.  It  was  regarded  as  an  important  religious  obli- 
gation to  maintain  the  health  of  the  body,  and  it  was  enjoined  upon 
the  Jew  to  devote  his  services  as  healer  to  Jew  and  non-Jew  alike. 
Thus  we  find  that  most  of  tlie  rabbis  of  the  middle  ages  were  physi- 
cians.    The  beautiful  prayer  of  Maimonides,  written  for  a  physician 


198  HISTORY. 

who  is  called  to  the  bedside  of"  the  sick,  proves  how  conscientious  the 
Jewish   pliysician  was   in  the  discharge  of  his  duty  and  how  exalted 
was  his  idea  of  his   profession.     It   has    been    said    by  the    famous 
Frenchmen,  Astruc  and  Prunelle,  themselves   physicians,  that  until 
the  time  when  the  schools  of  medicine  at  Montpellier  and   Salerno 
were  founded  and  mainly  tlirough  the  efforts  of  the  Jews,  the  latter 
were  the  only  physicians  in  the  then  known  world.     It  was  only  later 
on  that  the  Arabs  followed  their  example,  and  when  they  were  driven 
from  Spain  the  Jews  again  remained  the  sole  representatives  and  cul- 
tivators of  the  science  of  medicine.     Their  reputation  in  this  depart- 
ment  had  taken  such  a  deej)  hold  on   the  minds  of  the  people  that 
even  the  dignitaries  of  the  Church  and  the  rulers  of  the  State  who 
shamefully  plundered  and  persecuted  the  Jews,  would  have  none  other 
as  their  medical  attendants.     Francis  the  1st,  famed   by  the  field  of 
the  cloth  of  gold,  would  not  even  trust  himself  in  the  hands  of  a  con- 
verted Jew.     It  seems  he  had  as  much  faith  in  the  renegade  as  we 
have   to-day.     It  is  worthy  of  note   that  Maimonides  was  called   to 
England  as  a  physician  by  Richard,  the  Lion-hearted,  but  declined  to 
accept.     Until  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  medicine  and  the 
natural  sciences  had   not  parted   company,  and  thus  it  goes  without 
saying  that  the  learned  Jews  devoted   themselves  to  the  latter  with 
equal  assiduity.     There  was  no  branch  of  inquiry  that  did  not  claim 
their  attention   and   devotion,  and   so  eager  were   they  in  search  of 
knowledge   that  they   traversed   all   countries   to  find   it.     We  hear 
of  Petahyah  of  Regensburg,  of  Eldad  Ha-Dani  of  Munchausen  fame, 
and  especially  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  who  traveled   for  eight  years 
(1165-1173)  and  explored  almost  the  whole  of  the  then  known  world. 
The  account  of  his  travels  was  translated  not  only  into  Latin  but  into 
nearly  all  the  modern  European  languages.     In  the  voyage  of  discov- 
ery undertaken  to  East  India  the  Jews  were  represented  by  Abraham 
de  Behia  and  Joseph  Zapatero  de  Laraego,  the  same  who  had   been 
sent  by  King  John  the  2nd  of  Portugal  to  explore  the  coasts  of  the 
Red  Sea  and  the   island   of  Ormuz  in  the  Persian  gulf.     No  one  can 
read  the  Psalms  without  being  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  Jews 
loved  nature  and  strove  to  look  through  nature  up  to  nature's  God. 
They  drank  in  the  harmony  of  the  spheres,  and  while  they  did  not 
sink   to   the  level  of  nature  worship,  they  were  enraptured  with  the 
beauty  of  the  vault  fretted  with  golden  fire  and  all  the  forms  of  the 
creation  of  God.     Alexander  von  Humboldt  tiius  speaks  of  this  noble 
sentiment  of  the  ancient  Jews:   "Their  lyrical  poetry  is  more  adorned 
than  their  ei)ic  or  historical  narratives,  and  develops  a  rich  and  ani- 
mated conception  of  the  life  of  nature.     It  might  almost  be  said  that 


PRESERVATION  OF  THE  SCIENCES  IN  MIDDLE  AGES.  199 

one  siugle  Psiilra  (104th)  represents  the  image  of  the  whole  Cosmos." 
He  dwells  upon  their  accuracy  of  natural  description,  and  he  declares 
that  the  book  of  Job  propounds  problems  which  in  the  present  st^te 
of  onr  physical  knowledge  we  may  be  able  to  express  with  more 
scientific  defiuiteness  but  scarcely  answer  more  satisfactorily.  "The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  telleth  His  handi- 
work," and  in  all  the  ages  the  Jews  were  eagerly  bent  upon  finding 
His  glory  as  reflected  in  the  heavens  and  established  in  His  handiwork 
called  nature.  It  is  well  known  that  our  sages  could  never  have  fixed 
their  calendar  so  accurately  without  an  intimate  knowledge  of  astron- 
omy, and  their  method  of  calculation  passed  from  them  to  the  Arabs 
among  whom  they  lived  in  Yathrib.  About  eiglit  hundred  of  the 
common  era,  Rabbi  Sahal  Al-tabari  was  famously  known  as  a  physi- 
cian and  an  astronomer  ;  he  translated  the  works  of  Ptolemy  into 
Arabic  and  discovered  the  refraction  of  light.  The  pupil'  of  Isaac 
Israeli,  Dnnash  ben  Tammim,  was  famous  as  an  astronomer  in  his 
days,  and  was  among  the  first  to  use  the  Arabic  system  of  notation 
that  had  lately  come  into  use.  The  works  of  Abraham  bar  Hiyya,  an 
astronomer  who  lived  about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century, 
were  translated  into  l/atiu  and  extensively  used. 

In  Sefer  ha-Ibbur,  lie  proves  the  correctness  and  accuracy  of  the 
Jewish  calendar.  jNIaimonides,  who  was  no  mean  astronomer  and 
mathematician  himself,  wrote  an  elaborate  refutation  of  astrology 
wliicli  seems  to  have  been  quite  the  fashion  among  Jews  and  Christians 
in  tliose  days.  It  is  very  remarkable,  indeed,  that  the  Zohar  taught 
the  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis  as  the  cause  of  day  and  night, 
long  before  Copernicus.  About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
Alphonso,  King  of  Castile,  a  passionate  devotee  of  astronomy,  had 
new  tables  prepared  under  the  direction  of  Isaac  ben  Sid.  Alexander 
von  Humboldt  supposes  that  the  Latin  term  "  uebulosae"  for  stelhir 
clusters  passed  into  these  Alphonsiue  tables  through  the  preponderating 
influence  of  this  Jewish  astronomer  (Cosmos,  Vol.  IV,  294),  who  was 
not  the  chief  Rabbi  of  the  wealthy  Synagogue  at  Toledo,  as  Humboldt 
has, it,  but  only  enjoyed  the  humble  distinction  of  being  the  Hazzau 
of  the  congregation.  Among  many  others  I  will  only  mention  Levi 
ben  Gerson,  who,  as  philosopher  and  commentator,  outshone  all  of  his 
contemporaries.  His  attainments  in  astronomy  rnust  have  been  quite 
noteworthy,  inasmuch  as  his  description  of  an  astronomical  instru- 
ment invented  by  him  was  by  special  request  translated  into  Latin  for 
Pope  Clement  VI,  and  Keppler  was  very  anxious  to  get  it.  Thus  we 
find  the  Jews  busily  engaged  in  all  of  the  exact  sciences,  but  as  yet  we 
have  not  touched  upou  that  department  of  thought  in  wliich  the  Jews 


200  HISTORY. 

ha\'e  enacted  a  most  important  part.  Tlie  Arabs  were  the  first  to  slicd 
a  ray  of  light  into  the  gloom  wliich  hung  like  a  pall  upon  the  nations 
of.  Europe  after  the  migration  of  the  Huns  and  Vandals  and  the  sad 
havoc  which  they  caused  wherever  they  went. 

But  the  works  of  the  Greeks  became  known  to  the  Moors  through 
the  mediation  of  the  Jews.  In  those  days,  in  which  the  Jew  was  a 
wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  he  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
linguist.  There  were  whole  families  that  were  exclusively  engaged  in 
translating,  such  as  the  Thibbons,  through  whom  the  works  of  Aris- 
totle and  of  his  foremost  Mohammedan  follower,  Averroes,  were  trans- 
lated into  Latin,  and  thus  made  known  to  the  occidental  world. 
Along  with  them  the  family  of  Kalonymos  and  of  the  Kimliis  de- 
serve honorable  mention  for  fructifying  the  field  of  learning  by  means 
of  accurate  translations  of  learned  works.  But  the  Jews  were  not 
only  translators;  they  were  also  original  speculators  in  the  realm  of 
religious  thought  and  philosophy.  It  is  true,  they  created  no  brand- 
new  systems  of  thought,  but  tliey  popularized  almost  all  the  traditional 
ones,  and  were  chiefly  instrumental  in  bringing  them  into  the  homely 
thinking  of  the  people  by  applying  to  them  the  test  of  religion,  and 
by  attempting  to  reconcile  them  to  their  tradition'kl  faith.  The  Chris- 
tian schools  of  the  middle  ages  resounded  with  the  praises  of  a  philos- 
opher celebrated  as  one  of  the  profoundest  thinkers,  whose  views  they 
feared  to  refute,  and  oftener  adopted  as  their  own.  He  was  Avice- 
bron.  Wiio  was  he,  and  to  what  faith  did  he  belong?  These  ques- 
tions remained  unanswered  a  long  time. 

Avicebron  was  a  Jew.  No  name  is  more  favorably  known  in 
Jewish  history — he  is  none  other  than  the  excellent  poet-philosopher 
Avhom  we  have  just  mentioned,  ben  GabiroJ,  a  singularly  gifted  man, 
and  one  who  combined  a  depth  of  feeling  and  2:»o\ver  of  thought  such 
as  have  rarely  been  united  in  one  person.  He  is  the  well-known  au- 
thor of  "  Kether  Malchuth,"a  poem  wiiich  alone  would  have  estab- 
lished his  fame,  and  also  of  a  philosophic  work  known  as  "The  Foun- 
tain of  Life."  It  was  the  celebrated  Jewish  orientalist,  Solomon 
Munk,  of  Paris,  who  proved  the  identity  of  Gabirol  and  Avicebron. 
Up  to  that  time  he  was  supposed  to  have  been  a  pious  Christian  and 
his  works  had  been  eagerly  studied.  It  is  doubtful  whether  he  would 
have  been  regarded  as  so  great  an  authority  had  it  been  known 
that  he  was  a  Jew,  but,  as  it  was,  his  book  is  frequently  quoted  in  the 
writing  of  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  two  leading 
school-men  of  the  middle  ages.  Jourdain,  tiie  learned  French  his- 
torian of  philosophy,  equally  versed  in  Arabic  literature  and  the 
scholastic   writings,  says  that  we  can   not  get  a  sure  and  sufficient 


PRESERVATION   OF    THE   SCIENCES    IN    MIDDLE    AGES.  201 

knowledge  of  the  philosophy  of  the  thirteenth  century,  unless  we 
analyze  the  "  Liber  de  Causis"  and  the  "  Fons  vitae,"  the  one  trans- 
lated by  and  the  other  written  by  a  Jew.  After  Munk  had  made  his 
magnificent  discovery,  he  committed  it  to  the  learned  world  in  184(5. 
His  article  for  the  Litteraturblatt  des  Orients  of  that  year  was  addressed 
to  Professor  Ritter,  who,  in  his  history  of  philosophy,  had  accorded  uo 
place  whatsoever  to  the  Jewish  philosophers  of  the  middle  ages,  but 
who,  without  being  aware  of  it,  had  i)reseiited  a  Jew,  thi.s  very  Avice- 
bron,asthe  most  original  mind  of  the  entire  period  of  Arabic  thought, 
and  as  the  one  who  had  exercised  a  dominant  influence  in  the  Chris- 
iiau  schools  of  learning  down  to  the  time  of  Albert  the  Great  and 
Duns  Scotus. 

Ritter,  as  became  a  conscientious  scholar,  was  not  slow  to  acknowl- 
edge the  mistake  he  had  made.  He  admitted  that  a  Jew  was  the  first 
to  give  a  lasting  incentive  and  influence  to  the  philosophic  thought  of 
the  middle  ages.  We  can  better  estimate  the  importance  of  Gabirol's 
services  when  we  remember  that  he  even  preceded  Ibn  Badya  or 
Avempace,  the  first  of  the  Moslem  philosophers.  His  work  called 
"The  Fountain  of  Life"  had  been  translated  into  Latin  even  before 
it  was  into  Hebrew,  by  the  Dominican  Archdeacon,  Gondisalvi,  by 
the  aid  of  a  converted  Jew,  Avendeath,  about  1150.  The  Scotists 
and  Thomists  both  seized  upon  it,  the  former  as  Flatonists  exalted 
and  the  latter  as  Aristotelians  combated  the  views  of  Avicebron,  but 
both  regarded  him  as  a  Christian  philosopher  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. 

Geiger  has  mentioned  the  names  of  Gabirol  and  Spinoza  as  worthy 
companions  in  mind,  and  we  can  hardly  escape  the  belief  that  they 
were  aflianced  spirits.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  Gabirol's  philosophy 
was  so  soon  neglected  and  forgotten,  because  it  was  held  to  run  counter 
to  the  teachings  of  Judaism. 

I  shall  not  mention  the  translators  and  commentators  of  the  works 
of  Aristotle,  through  whom  alone  his  philosophy  became  known  to  the 
schoolmen  and  through  them  to  the  European  world,  but  I  shall 
conclude  this  very  unsatisfactory  sketch  by  referring  to  one  whom 
Munk  has  called  the  greatest  glory  of  the  Synagogue,  Moses  ben 
Maimon,  undoubtedly  the  greatest  man  among  those  to  whom  Moham- 
medan Cordova  gave  birth.  His  chief  work,  "  The  Guide  to  the  Per- 
plexed," was  translated  into  Latin  hardly  a  half-century  after  his  death, 
and  yet  Rabbi  JNIoses  of  Egypt,  as  he  was  called  by  Christians,  was  so 
well  known  in  the  Christian  world  that  in  all  important  matters  bearing 
upon  religion  they  appealed  to  his  work  as  an  authority.  He  was  an 
Aristotelian  out  and  out,  like  Averroes,  the  greatest  of  Mohammedan 


202  HISTORY. 

philosophers,  but  yet  he  was  not  bound  to  him  shxvishly,  and  he  was 
the  first  to  attempt  with  any  success  to  refute  Aristotle's  arguments 
that  the  world  was  uncreated.  In  this  particular  he  was  closely  fol- 
h)wed  by  Albertus  Magnus  and  Thomas  Aquinas.  There  are,  as  Joel 
tells  us,  folio  pages  in  Albertus's  books  on  the  subject  of  creation, 
which  read  like  a  translation  of  the  Moreh.  Thomas  Aquinas  was 
a  still  closer  student  of  Maimonides.  He  accepts  from  him  his  ex- 
position of  the  God-idea  and  his  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God. 
But  tlie  influence  of  Maimonides  was  not  confined  to  the  middle  ages. 
The  great  Leibnitz,  as  we  now  know,  studied  him  and  extracted  his 
books,  chapter  for  chapter,  and  praised  him  in  the  following  terms  : 
"  I  find  the  book  of  llabbi  Moses,  called  '  The  Guide  of  the  Erring,' 
an  excellent  one  and  of  mucii  greater  philosophical  value  than  I  had 
believed.  I  consider  it  worthy  of  attentive  study."  We  can  even  as- 
sert that  Leibnitz  was  indebted  to  him  for  the  central  idea  of  his  most 
popular  books  the  "  Theodicy,"  a  vindication  of  the  justice  of  God  in 
ordaining  or  permitting  natural  and  moral  evil.  A  comparison  of  the 
answers  given  by  Leibnitz  on  this  subject,  with  those  of  Maimonides 
in  the  third  part  of  the  Moreh,  will  prove  this  assertion. 

Even  Kant  was  not  uninfluenced  by  Maimonides,  we  dare  main- 
tain, when  we  remember  that  he  recommends  as  the  only  sure  way  of 
attaining  a  pure  and  worthy  conception  of  God,  is,  not  by  predicating 
of  him  positive  attributes,  but  denying  of  him  every  attribute  that 
involves  an  imperfection.  Maimonides  was  the  first  philosopher  who 
clearly  sets  up  this  doctrine,  and  to  him  we  owe  the  seminal  and  liberal- 
izing idea  that  we  can  not  say  what  God  is,  we  can  only  say  what  He 
is  not,  and  rest  safe  in  the  thought  that  He  is.  Indeed,  we  owe  tiiis. 
religious  inspiration  to  the  Thorah  itself,  when  it  tells  us  that  the 
most  fitting  name  for  God  is,  "I  am  that  I  am."  It  may  be  of  in- 
terest to  know  that  even  Hegel  had  studied  the  Moreh. 

The  Jews  have  never  been  mere  idle  recipients  of  the  liberal 
culture  of  others,  but  they  have  always  been  eager  and  earnest  co- 
workers in  every  realm  and  department  of  knowledge.  Their  faith  is 
founded  on  knowledge,  and  the  fact  that  Jewish  scholars  have 
devoted  themselves  to  science  in  the  face  of  persecution  and  oblo- 
quy entitles  them  to  the  highest  [)raise  we  can  bestow  on  them, 
both  for  their  nobility  of  character  and  their  singular  devotion  to 
science.  If  the  Jews  of  tlie  middle  ages  have  not  been  awarded 
sufficient  recognition  for  tlie  im])ortant  part  they  liavr  enacted  in  the 
enlargement  and  preservation  of  the  sciences,  it  is  due  to  the  system- 
atic and  stupid  attetnpts  to  suppress  tliem  and  keep  thcni  and  their  re- 
ligion in   the  l)ackgronn(l.      The  failure  to   give  tliem   their  full   meas- 


PRESERVATION    OF   THE   SCIENCES   IN   MIDDLE    AGES.  203 

ure  of  desert  is  but  another  colossal  exemplification  of  tlie  willingness 
with  which  men  forget  their  benefactors.  To  the  Jew  as  a  vital  factor 
in  the  civilization  of  mankind  more  than  to  any  other  member  of  the 
human  family,  the  words  of  the  world's  master  poet  may  be  applied: 
"  Time  hath,  my  Lord,  a  wallet  at  his  back,  wherein  he  puts  alms  for 
oblivion — a  great  sized  monster  of  ingratitudes." 


204  HISTORY. 


HISTORIANS  OF  JUDAISM. 

By  rabbi  E.  SCHREIBER. 


I. 

While  the  number  of  writers  ou  the  history  of  the  Jews  is  quite 
hirge,  we  do  not  yet  possess  a  history  oi  Judaism.  This  history  must 
of  necessity  be  a  history  of  the  development  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
Jew.  The  outward  history  has  only  the  value  of  a  substratum  of  the 
condition  which  acted  favorably  or  unfavorably  toward  this  evolu- 
tion. "Not  by  might,  not  by  physical  force,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith 
the  Eternal."  The  history  of  Judaism  is  indeed  a  Sefer  milcliamoth 
<idonai,  a  record  containing  the  struggles  in  the  cause  of  God.  Truth  is 
the  seal  of  God.  Just  because  Judaism  developed  independent  of  the 
destruction  of  its  national  and  political  life,  it  still  exists.  The  history 
of  the  people  of  Israel  and  the  history  of  the  Jews,  even  in  the  period 
of  their  national  and  political  independence,  proves  very  little  talent 
on  their  side  for  self-government,  executive  administration  and  states- 
manship. Nor  did  the  Jews  exercise  any  important  influence  upon 
the  political  life  of  other  nations,  but  the  liistory  of  our  spiritual  life 
is  iu  its  grandeur,  sublimity  and  influence  without  a  parallel  in  the 
world's  history. 

The  Jewish  nationality  was  broken,  the  commonwealth  destroyed, 
tlie  Temple  consumed  by  fire,  and  the  priest's  occupation  was  gone. 
Legend  tells  us  that  they  threw  the  keys  of  the  Temple  toward 
Heaven,  never  to  be  returned  again.  New  Messiahs  and  revolutions 
availed  nothing  against  Rome's  legions,  and  yet  it  was  then,  when 
the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation  was  concluded,  that  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  spirit  of  Judaism  proper  began.  Home  could  never  forget  and 
never  forgive  the  Jew  that  he  had  engaged  for  such  a  long  time  its 
military  power.  Kon)e  instinctively  felt  not  only  hatred  against,  but 
fear  and  dread  of,  the  spirit  of  Judaism.  The  Jew,  although  con- 
quered physically,  vanquished  the  haughty  victor  spiritually  and  mor- 
ally. Well  n)iglit  the  proud  Roman  sneer  at  the  down-trodden  Jewish 
captives  who  followed  humbly  Titus's  triumphal  procession  ;  yet  liitle 
did  he  dreani  that  these  same  exiles  would  introduce  into  the  city  on 
the  Tiber  a  spirit   which    ultimately  destroyed   Rome's  temples  and 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  205 

altars,  and  was  iiiptni mental  in  gradually  converting  the  pagan  world 
to  the  belief  in  etliical  monotheism. 

The  Jew  started  on  his  sad  pilgrimage  of  tlic  Middle  Ages,  but 
he  was  permitted  to  erect  tottering  huts  only,  had  to  tear  down  to-day 
what  he  had  built  yesterday.  Yet  no  matter  of  how  short  a  duration 
his  stay  in  a  country,  he  never  neglected  to  till  the  spiritual  soil  and 
to  sow  spiritual  seeds. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  of  many  historians  of  our  century  that  they 
dwell  too  much  on  the  persecution  and  oppression  of  the  Jews,  and  do 
not  pay  greater  attention  to  the  other  and  brighter  side  of  the  picture, 
namely,  tliat  while  the  Jew  was  oppressed,  the  spirit  of  Judaism  could 
not  be  suppressed.  Too  many  of  our  historians  make  our  history  sim- 
ply a  valley  of  sorrow,  a  tragedy,  a  tear-stained  romance.  Even  at 
this  late  day,  orators  at  conventions  of  our  secret  orders  do  not  tire 
quoting  Byron's  well-meant  verses: 

"The  bird  has  its  nest,  the  fox  its  cave. 
Mankind  its  country,  Israel  but  the  grave." 

We  do  not  care  for  the  pity  of  the  world,  but  we  challenge  its  ad- 
miration and  just  appreciation  due  to  the  genius  of  Judaism,  which 
was  strong  enough  to  endow  the  hunted  Jew  with  the  faculty  of  taking 
deep  root  in  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  country  in  which  his  lot 
was  even  temporarily  cast.  As  an  instance  in  the  case,  I  mention  the 
fact  that  centuries  after  the  Jews  were  driven  from  Germany,  they 
have  preserved  the  German  language  among  themselves,  and  thus  re- 
mained in  touch  with  Germau  culture  and  civilization.  It  is  this 
genius  which  saved  the  Jews,  even  in  the  dark  ages,  from  the  curse  of 
ignorance.  At  the  time  when  dignitaries  of  State  and  Church  were 
not  initiated  in  the  art  of  reading  and  writing,  the  dispersed  Jew 
preserved  a  most  astonishing  aspiration  to  a  spiritual  development, 
which  saved  him  from  stagnation.  He  could  certainly  read  and  write 
one  language.  While  science  now  and  then  took  a  crooked  route, 
canonization  of  ignorance  was  never  the  rule  in  Israel. 

At  a  time  when  the  Jericho  walls  of  superstition  shut  out  every 
ray  of  light  from  the  church,  our  priests  sounded  the  bugle-call  by 
proclaiming:  "The  Thora  forces  nobody  to  believe  what  is  against 
reason;"  or,  "Reason  is  the  only  mediator  between  God  and  man." 
Gigantic  works  of  darker  and  brighter  times,  productions  of  thought 
and  spiritual  activity,  are  before  us,  which  contain  an  acumen  and 
power  of  thought,  a  wealth  of  sound  sense  and  salutary  maxims, 
which  must  awaken  the  reverence  of  all  those  who  appreciate  them. 

Judaism  is  not  only  the  mother  of  Christianity,  but  stood  like- 


206  HISTORY. 

wise  with  its  doctrines  at  the  cradle  of  that  new  civilization,  which  in 
the  seventh  century  sprang  into  existence  within  the  boundaries  of 
Arabia.  The  only  fruit-bearing  thought  of  Islamism,  "There  is  no 
other  God  but  the  One  in  Unity,"  was  taken  from  Ju(Uiism,  and  was 
garnished  and  adorned  with  Jewish  views  and  tales.  Wiiat  is  known 
as  the  civilization  of  the  Arabs  and  Moors  in  the  Middle  Ages  would 
not  have  exercised  such  a  profound  influence  had  the  Jews  not  taken 
part  therein.  Through  translations  from  the  Arabic  tongue  into  He- 
brew, and  from  the  Hebrew  into  the  various  European  languages,  the 
Jews  scattered  the  seeds  of  the  new  culture  far  and  wide.  Well  may 
the  Jews  be  sneered  at  as  peddlers  with  cast-off  garments,  but  they 
carried  the  cast-off  garments  of  ancient  civilization  and  classical  cul- 
ture into  the  homes  of  European  nations.  They  were  not  only  busi- 
ness mediators,  but  mediators  of  the  sciences. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  short  time  allotted  to  me  to  enumerate  all 
the  great  Jewish  minds  who  contributed  so  much  to  the  philosophy, 
medicine,  poetry,  and  other  sciences  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Prof. 
Schleiden  did  this  in  his  "Der  Ehifluss  der  Juclen  auf  die  Verbreitung 
der  Wmenschaft  im  M'dtelalier."  ^^  (Leipzig,  1879.)  But  sufiice  to 
say  that  all  this  bears  testimony  to  the  genius  of  Judaism,  which,  even 
under  adverse  circumstances,  can  not  be  broken  down.  The  Renais- 
.«ance  newly  awakened  the  European  world  by  means  of  Hellenism 
and  Judaism.  It  was  the  rediscovered  Bible,  made  accessible  to 
Christians  by  means  of  Jewish  teachers,  which  brought  about  the 
great  reformation.  What  is  called  "higher  criticism"  walks  upon 
crutches  borrowed  from  the  Rabbis  and  Jewish  exegetes  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  (Chivi  of  Balk,  Saadia,  Gikatilia,  Ibn  Ezra,  Mose  del  Medigo, 
Elias  Levita,  Asaria  de  Rossi,  and  others). 

The  originator  of  a  new  line  of  philosophical  thought,  the  poor 
crystal  cutter  of  Amsterdam,  the  creator  of  bihlical  criticism,  Baruch 
Spinoza,  was  nurtured  on  the  breasts  of  Judaism.  He  had  been  edu- 
cated by  the  Jewish  votaries  of  Aristotle,  received  many  impulses 
from  the  Kabbala,  and  was  greatly  influenced  by  Mainionides,  Ibn 
Ezra,  Judah  Alfakar,  and  Chasdai  Crescas. 

It  is  too  early  in  the  day  to  .>^peak  of  the  influence  of  modern 
Judaism  on  the  world's  history,  but  aside  from  the  fact  that  the  hue 
and  cry  of  anti-Semitism  proves  that  such  an  influence  exists,  thought- 
ful men  will  not  deny  that  the  Jewis!)  reform  movement,  originated 
and  fathered  by  Abraham  Geiger  and  the  German  school,  and  devel- 

Thc  inllueiice  ot  tli(>  .lows  ui)on  the   civilization  ot  IIk'  Middle  Ages. 
The  panii)lilft  was  translated  into  lOnglish  I  Haltimure,  l>;xi  >  l>y  liiu.swanger. 


IIISTOKIANS    OF   JUDAISM.  207 

oped  and  forcibly  carried  out  in  tliis  country,  exercises  a  powerful  in- 
fluence toward  liberalizing  I'eligious  thought  and  advancing  the  inter- 
est of  biblical  science.  Geiger's  ^'Urschvift  und  Uhendzunrien  der 
Bihel"  (1854)  has  contributed  largely  toward  a  better  understanding 
not  ojily  of  the  Bible  and  of  Judaism,  but  of  Christianity. 

II. 

After  these  outlines  it  will  be  seen  that  "  historians  of  Judaism  " 
are  few  and  far  between.  Geiger's  "  Judenthum  tind  seine  Geschichte," 
in  lectures  held  in  Breslau,  Frankfurt  and  Berlin  (1864,  18(35  and 
1870),  and  Jost's  "  Geschlchle  des  Judenthinn's  und  seiner  Sekten"  (Leip- 
zig, 1857,  1858,  1859),  both  in  three  volumes,  came  nearest  to  the 
ideal.  All  the  other  histories  are  histories  of  the  JeiV!<,  but  not  of 
Judaism. 

During  the  ages  of  persecution  it  was  next  to  impossible  for  the 
Jews  to  preserve  and  collect  the  vast  memoi'ies  of  their  glorious  past. 
They  lost  the  sense  for  history.  Outside  of  "  Memraor-books"  (so- 
called  "  chronicles"  of  congregations,  devoid  of  system  and  method) 
only  a  few  Jewish  historians  prior  to  the  nineteenth  century  deserve 
notice.  I  mention  first  the  physician,  astronomer,  grammarian  and 
philosopher  Profit  Duran.  His  Jewish  name  was  Isaac  ben  Mose,  and, 
as  author,  he  is  known  under  the  name  "  Efodi"^  (Ephodi3eus).  His 
"Memories  of  persecutions"  (Sichron  hashmad^,  contain  the  histories 
of  the  Jewish  martyrs  from  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple 
to  the  fourteenth  century. 

Another  Jewish  historian  was  the  physician  Joseph  ben  Jushua 
Kohen  (born  in  1496  at  Avignon,  died  1575).  He  published  "  Chron- 
icles of  the  Kings  of  France  and  the  Otomau  House"  (1554).  The 
title  is :  Sefer  dibre  hayamim  lemalche  Zarfath  umalche  betli  autiman  hato- 
(jar.  The  work  was  translated  into  English  by  Biallobolotzky  under 
the  title  :  ''The  Chronicles  of  Rabbi  Joseph  ben  Joshua  ben  Meier  the 
iSephardi."  -  His  Hebrew  style  is  excellent.  Basnage  calls  him  the 
"  greatest  Jewish  historian  since  Josephus."  The  author  describes  the 
wars  between  the  French  and  the  Turks.  It  is  in  fact  the  history  of 
the  struggle  between  Islamism  and  Christianity,  beginning  with  the 
destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire.     The  author  relates,  wherever  the 

1  An  abbreviation  of  Oincr  I'rojkit  Duran.  His  letter,  ''  Ignrth  altlii 
Kuiiliothchhu"  (Constantinople,  1854),  is  famous  for  its  cutting  sarcasm. 

■^  It  is  a  source  of  regret  that  this  translation,  whicli  Avas  issucil  in  a 
most  elegant  form  in  l.S:>5-:5(),  under  the  auspices  of  the  "Oriental  Transla- 
tion Fund."'  is  absojntelv  wortiiless. 


208  HISTORY. 

occasion  justifies  it,  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  in  the  different  coun- 
tries. He  writes  not  only  witli  his  pen,  but  with  his  heart,  and  shows 
God's  providence  in  history;  how  wrong,  cunning,  and  wickedness  re- 
ceive in  the  end  their  just  punishment.  The  autlior  bitterly  attacks 
the  tormentors  of  his  co-religionists,  a  fact  which  is  excusable,  consid-" 
eriug  that  he  was  himself  a  witness  of  the  heartless  persecutions. 

His  book  "  Emek  Habacha,"  ("Valley  of  Tears")  was  com- 
menced in  Yoltaggio  in  1558  and  completed  in  1563.  It  was  trans- 
lated into  German  and  supplied  with  very  valuable  historical  notes  by 
Dr.  M.  Weiuer  (Leipzig,  1858).  This  work  is  a  martyrology  of  the 
Jews,  and  relates  in  detail  the  sad  sufferings  of  Israel,  caused  by 
prejudice,  calumny,  artful  tricks  aud  false  accusations.  The  author 
made  use  of  a  similar  work  of  Samuel  U^que,  entitled,  "ComfAacaetn  as 
Tribulacoens  de  Israel"  ("Consolation  on  account  of  the  Tribulations 
of  Israel,"  Ferrara,  1552),  of  which  I  shall  speak  later. 

Another  historical  work  of  the  same  character,  a  martyrology,  is 
"  Shebet  Jehudah"  ("The  Scourge  of  Judah"),  also  edited  and  trans- 
lated into  German  by  Dr.  Wiener  (Hanover,  1855).  This  book  has 
virtually  three  authors — the  father,  son  and  grandson  of  the  family 
Ibn  Verga,  Jmla,  Solomon  and  Joseph  Ihn  Verga — and  was  published  in 
1552.  The  Hebrew  style  is  brilliant,  but  the  work  lacks  system  and 
method.  Interesting  are  the  causes  which  Salomon  Ibn  Verga  gives 
for  the  persecutions  of  the  Jews  in  general  and  of  the  Spanish  Jews 
in  particular.  These  are:  1.  The  excellence  of  the  Jews,  for  "  Whom- 
soever God  loveth  he  chasteneth."  2.  The  punishment  for  the  sin  of 
the  golden  calf,  which  is  not  yet  expiated.  8.  The  exclusiveness  of 
the  Jews ;  their  separation  from  the  tables  of  Christians  have  excited 
hatred  against  the  former.  4,  Jesus' crucifixion  caused  the  Christians 
to  take  revenge.  5.  Envy  against  the  Spanish  Jews.  6.  Their  im- 
moral intercourse  with  Christian  women.  7.  Their  false  oaths.  We 
see  that  Ibn  Verga  did  not  hide  the  faults  of  his  contemporaries. 

Elia  Kapsali  (born  1490,  died  1555),  Rabbi  in  Candia,  was  an- 
other historian  of  note.  He  published  two  historical  works,  one  en- 
titled "  J)ihre  Haijamim,"  or ''Seder  Elkdm"  on  the  Turkish  dynasty 
and  the  Spanish  Jews  (Candia,  1523),  extracts  of  which  were  made  by 
Luzzatto  for  the  translation  of  "  Emek  Habacha."  The  other  is  a  col- 
lection of  letters,  entitled  "Sefer  nam  VechoUm"  Geiger's  Zeitschrift 
HI,  .'548.  His  Hebrew  style  is  excellent  and  his  liistory  proves  great 
talent. 

Of  less  importance  as  a  historian  is  Abraham  Zncufo.  King 
Emanuel  of  Portugal  appointed  him  professor  of  history.  His  book, 
"  Juchasin"  (Chronicles),  was  finished  in  Tunis  in  1502.     The  second 


fnSTORIANS    OF   JUDAISM.  209 

edition  was  published,  with  many  additions,  in  Cracow  in  LSoO.     'fiie 
latest  edition  of  the  work  came  out  in  Loudon  in  1857. 

But  the  most  important  and  original  historian  of  this  period  was 
Samuel  Usque.  His  "  Consolacaem  as  Tribulacoens  de  Israel  "  (1552, 
"Consolations  in  Israel's  Tribulations")  forms  a  dialogue  between 
three  shepherds,  Icabo,  Niimeo  and  Zicareo,  in  whicli  the  first  bitterly 
complains  about  the  tragic  fate  of  Israel  in  its  checkered  career  in 
history.  The  o'her  shepherds  try  to  pour  the  balm  of  consolation  into 
the  wounded  heart  of  the  unfortunate  shepherd  by  representing  the 
sufferings  of  Israel  as  a  necessary  preparation  for  the  fulfillment  of  a 
sublime  mission.  This  work  forms  a  historical  poem,  beginning  with 
biblical  times  and  coming  down  to  his  own  period.  He  made  good 
use  of  Latin  sources,  of  Fi-euch,  Spanish,  and  Italian  clironicles  of  t!ie 
Hebrew  writings  and  collections,  and  paid  due  attention  to  chrunolog- 
ical  accuracy.  His  main  object  was  to  raise  the  courage  and  the 
hopes  of  the  Portuguese  refugees  from  the  persecutions  of  the  Span- 
ish Inquisition.  They  fled  to  Italy  in  order  to  remain  faithful  to  the 
religion  of  their  fathers.     He,  no  doubt,  succeeded  in  his  noble  task. 

Since  that  time  until  the  beginning  of  this  century  not  even  at- 
tempts were  made  by  Jews  to  write  a  history  of  Israel.  Christian  his- 
torians, attracted  by  the  grandeur  of  the  subject,  attempted  the  task, 
but  even  well-meaning  and  least  prejudiced  men,  like  Basnaire,  Gre- 
goire,  and  Dohm,  did  not  succeed  in  offering  a  true  picture.  To  search 
the  Jewish  records  as  we  would  those  of  other  nations  was  regarded 
"heresy,"  a  dangerous  outrage  on  the  Christian  religion.' 

Of  Christian  writers  on  Jewish  history,  Jacob  Basnage,'-  a  French 
protestant  clergyman,  stands  in  the  front  rank.  He  was  born  in  Kioo 
and  died  in  1723,  and  published  a  "  History  of  tlie  Religion  of  the 
Jews  from  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Present,"^  in  five  volumes.  He  was  the 
first  to  recognize  that,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Christianity  h:id 
entered  upon  the  historical  arena  and  the  national  lite  of  the  Jews 
had  ceased  seventeen  centuries  before  his  time,  yet  their  mission  was 
not  concluded.  The  martyrdom  and  literature  of  the  Jews  filled  him 
with  respect  and  awe.  He  jjlainly  says  that  it  milst  be  nun-e  than 
an  accident  that  the  Jews,  although  oppressed  and  persecuted,  still 
exist,  while  so  many  of  their  persecutors  are  laid  away  in  their  graves 


! 


Stanley;  History  of  tlie  .lewish  Church,  Vol.  I,  Introduction. 
^  Ik'  fled  to  Holland  on  :icc;ouat  of  religious  persecutions.    He  preached 
for  the  Wallonian  Church  in  Hang. 

^  The  title  is  :  '' Histuire  de  la  licUglun  des  Juifr  drpitk  Jcnn.-<  ( liriM  jn>^qiC  a 
Present''  (Rotterdam,  1707-1711).  It  was  translated  into  English  in  1708  by 
Taylor. 

14 


210  HISTORY. 

or  are  at  best  ruins  of  i'ormer  greatness  (lutrodiietion  I,  ''Plan  de  cette 
Histoire").  The  fact  that  Basuage,  himself,  owing  to  the  religious 
fanaticism  of  Louis  the  XV.  Avas  compelled  to  eat  the  bread  of  exile 
in  Holland  made  him  just  to  the  Jews.  He  had  also  the  necessary 
knowledge  to  make  use  of  Hebrew  sources.  Still  he  did  not  possess 
the  historical  tact  for  his  important  task.  His  division  of  the  Jewish 
history  into  the  history  of  the  Orient  and  Occident  was  not  fortunate 
because  unnatural.  The  law  of  historical  growth  and  development 
seems  to  have  been  unknown  to  iiim.  In  spite  of  his  best  intentions 
to  be  just,  he  saw  the  Jewish  history  through  fhe  lenses  of  church  his- 
tory. "  The  Jews  were  rejected  by  God  because  they  rejected  Jesus" 
is  the  leading  principle  of  Basnage's  work.  And  yet,  his  history  has 
done  great  service  to  the  cause  of  tlie  Jews,  who  have  been  looked 
upon  by  the  people  as  a  horde  of  gypsies  without  a  history.  Christian 
Theophyl  Uuger,  pastor  in  Silesia,  and  Johann  Christo[)hnrus  '^^^)lf 
(born  1G83,  died  1739),  professor  of  Oriental  languages  in  Hamburg, 
were  greatly  influenced  in  their  historical  studies  by  Basnage.  Many 
mistakes  of  Basnage  were  corrected  by  Wolf  in  his  "  Bibliotlieca  He- 
braica"  (four  volumes;  Hamburg  and  Leipzig,  1715,  1721,  1727, 
1733).  Of  Jewish  contemporaries,  Mose  Chagis  was  the  only  one  who 
in  his  "  3/«V()ia//),  Chachamim  '  mentions  and  appreciates  Basuage. 

The  Christian  Friedrich  Dohm  (born  1751,  died  1820),  an  able 
historian  of  Prussia,  and  a  warm  friend  of  the  Jews,  took  great  in- 
terest in  Jewish  history.  He  was  an  admirer  of  Moses  Mendelsohn, 
and  planned  the  publication  of  a  "  History  of  the  Jewish  Nation  Since 
the  Destruction  of  their  State."  In  his  memorable  work  on  "The 
Civil  Amelioration  of  the  Jews"  (Berlin,  1781)  Councilor  Dolmi  puts 
forth  an  earnest  plea  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the  Jews.  He  points 
to  the  thrift  and  frugality  which  marks  tlie  Jewish  race,  and  exposes 
the  folly  of  debarring  so  valuable  a  class  of  population  from  the  rights 
of  the  citizen.     On  the  hand  of  historv  he  defends  the  Jews  a<rainst 

•■  CD 

the  charges  always  repeated  against  then),  and  appeals  to  the  wisdom 
of  the  government  to  redeem  the  errors  and  injustice  of  \\\(:  past. 
Reviewing  the  history  of  tlie  Jews  in  Europe,  he  shows  how  they  have 
been  in  possession  of  their  civil  rights  in  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Roman  Km])ire,  and  how  they  had  contributed  to  the  culture  and  civ- 
ilization of  different  lands,  and  that  liberty  and  humane  treatment 
would  not  only  accrue  to  their  advantage  but  to  the  welfare  of  the 
state  in  which  they  live. 

The  faujous  P^rench  priest  Grfj/oi're  published  an  essay  on  "  The 
Physical,  jNIoial  and  Political  Regeneration  of  the  Jews,"  which  was 
crowned  by  the  Royal  Society  of  Sciences  and  Arts,  in  Metz,  August 


HISTORIANS    OF   JUDAISM.  211 

23,  1778.  In  it  he  enthusiastically  pleaded  for  the  emancipation  of 
the  Jews.  Yet  he  still  believed  ^  in  the  myth — that  the  martyrdom 
of  the  Jews  is  at  least  deserved,  because  of  their  rejection  of  the 
"Savior."-  From  the  same  point  of  view  he  treats  Judaism  in  his 
"  History  of  the  Religions  Sects"  (Histoire  des  Sectei}  Beligienses,  Paris, 
ISIO). 

The  "History  of  the  Jews  from  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  Present  Time,"  by  Hannah  Adams,  of  Boston,  was  reprinted  in 
London  (1818)  under  the  auspices  of  the  "Society  for  the  Propaga- 
tion of  Christianity  Among  the  Jews."  This  society  made  so-called 
"  improvements"  to  the  book.  In  1819  a  German  translation  of  the 
work  in  two  volumes  was  published  (Leipzig,  Baumgartner).  Bas- 
nage's  "history,"  in  English  translation,  1708,  Gregoire's  "Essay" 
and  "  Historie  des  Sectes  Religieuses,"  David  Levi's  "  Ceremonies  of  the 
Jews,"  and  Josephus'  and  Mosheim's  "  History  of  the  Church"  were 
the  main  sources  of  Hannah  Adams.  While  the  enthusiastic  lady 
deserves  credit  for  her  earnest  endeavors,  it  can  not  be  expected  to 
find  in  her  work  more  than  a  feeble  attempt.  While  she  considers 
the  Jewish  "  nation  "^  "  chosen  to  proclaim  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God,"  she  nevertheless  sees^in  Christianity  the  fulfillment  of  Judaism. 
Every  so-called  "  conversion"  of  a  Jew  is  scrupulously  chronicled  by 
this  historian.  We  look  in  vain  for  historical  truth  in  this  work, 
which  for  this  very  reason  was  taken  hold  of  by  the  Loiidon  missionary 
society.  The  true  object  of  the  book  can  best  be  seen  by  the  follow- 
ing concluding  passages :  "  The  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  of  onr 
Savioi-  concerning  the  destruction  of  their  city  and  temple,  and  of  the 
misery  undergone  since  their  dispersion  offers  the  strongest  proofs  for  ihe 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  .  .  .  The  Christian  reader  can  not 
better  conclude  this  book  than  with  the  purpose  to  pray  often  and 
zealously  for  the  promised  conversion  of  the  Jews,  and  to  subscribe  to 
the  Fund  of  the  "  London  Society  for  the  Furtherance  of  Christianity 
Among  the  Jews." 

Such  is  the  tendency  of  most  of  Christian  historians  of  Israel, 
who,  with  perhaps  one  or  two  exceptions,  close  their  histories  with  the 
beginning  of  Christianity.  Even  scholars  like  Heinrich  Ewald,  Mil- 
man,  Stanley,  and  others  who  follow  in  their  wake,  forui  no  exception 
to  the  rule. 

Professor  Heinrich   Ewald's  "  History  of  the   People   of  Israel," 

'  F]ssay,   "Sur  la  Regeneration  Physique,   Morale  et   Politique   des   Jaifs'' 
(1778). 

'  Ibidem,  chapter  5. 

■■  The  fact  is  that  there  is  uo.Iewisli  "nation  "  since  1900  years. 


212  HISTORY. 

in  seven  large  volumes  (Goettitigen,  1862),  is  justly  considered  a  staiul- 
ard  work.  Ewald  closes  his  history  with  the  uprising  of  Bar-Kliosiba 
in  the  time  of  Hadrian.  This  shows  best  his  point  of  view,  namely, 
that  the  Jews'  history  has  lost  in  value  since  they  have  lost  their 
national  independence.  Such  a  conception  of  our  history  is  superficiid. 
At  the  same  time  Ewald  sees  in  Israel  a  missionary  people,  inasmuch 
as  they  prepared  the  world  for  the  coming  of  the  "  Savior."  But  for 
Ewald  this  mission  was  ended  by  the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  Jesus. 
True,  the  histoiy  of  the  Jews  is  continued  a  century  after  Jesus,  but 
only  because  the  existence  of  Christianity  was  not  firmly  established 
before  that  time.  Judaism  is  after  this  period  for  Ewald  a  corpse,  a 
ruin,  not  worth  mentioning. 

Time  has  proven  that  Ewald  and  all  his  followers  and  disciples 
were  wrong.  For  not  only  has  Judaism  been  a  living  factor  in  history, 
but  has  proven  its  vitality  and  power  by  giving  birth  to  another  his- 
torical religion,  namely,  Ishimism,  and  by  influencing  the  great  move- 
ment called  "Humanism,"  which  in  its  turn  was  the  mother  of  the 
great  Christian  Reformation.  Of  the  influence  of  Judaism  in  modern 
times  it  is  needless  to  speak. 

Ewald,'  in  spite  of  his  stupendous  scholarship  and  historical  acu- 
men, possessed  neither  the  knowledge  of  the  Jew'ish  sources  (Talmud 
and  rabbinical  literature)  nor  the  want  of  prejudice  so  necessary  for  a 
thorough  understanding  and  a  clear  conception  and  appreciation  of  the 
powerful  forces  at  work  within  Judaism  a  century  before  and  after  the 
birth  of  Christianity.  At  the  same  time  Ewald,  although  unable  to 
read  the  Talmud,  criticised  it  most  arrogantly.^  Since  Ewald,  Chris- 
tian theologians  have  paid  great  attention  to  the  study  of  the  Jewish 
sources.  ^  (Noeldeke,  Merx,  Dillmann,  Kuenen,  Renan,  Stade,  Hitzig, 
Haussrath,  and  a  host  of  others.)  As  the  short  time  allotted  to  us 
does  not  permit  to  consider  all  the  works  on  the  "  History  of  Israel" 
by  leading  Christian  scholars,  such  as  Hitzig's,  Haussrath's,  and  others, 

'  The  following  passage  in  P^wald's  history  is  a  gem  and  deserves  to  be 
engraved  in  letters  of  gold  at  the  entrance  of  every  synagogue.  He  says  : 
"  The  history  of  this  ancient  (Hebrew)  people  is  at  the  foundation  of  the 
true  religion  passing  through  all  stages  of  progress  by  which  it  attained  to 
its  consummation;  the  religion  which  on  this  narrow  territory  advances 
througli  all  struggles  to  victory,  and  at  length  reveals  itself  in  its  full  glory 
and  might  to  the  end;  that,  spreading  abroad  by  its  own  irresistible  eno-gy, 
it  may  never  vanish  away,  bid  may  become  ilte  eternal  Jieritage  and  I^lcssing  of  all 
nations."     (Vol.  I,  page  9.) 

2  See  Geiger's  Zeitschrift  F.  W.  U.  L.,  Vol.  VII,  pp.  I'KJ-lii'J. 

^  Geiger  has  done  much  to  bring  about  this  result.  See  his  letter  to 
Noeldeke.     (Nachgel.  Schriften,  Vol.  V.) 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  21  O 

Ave  therefore  mention  one  of  recent  date,  hecaiige  the  author's  name  is 
familiar  in  the  whole  civilized  world,  namely,  "The  History  of  Israel," 
by  the  great  Frenchman,  Ernest  Renan,  of  which  three  volumes  are 
published,  and  a  fourth  volume  is  ready  for  the  press.'  This  most 
l)rilliant  writer,  whose  books  are  monumental  as  models  of  good 
style,  has  all  the  virtues  and  faults  of  tiie  French.  He  often  sac- 
I'ifices  critical  judgment  for  brilliancy  of  construction.  The  histori- 
cal art  is  with  Renan  more  of  a  poetic  divinatory  kind  than  a  true 
analysis  of  material  presented.  His  "Life  of  Jesus"  is  a  novel  rather 
than  a  history.  Jesus  appears  as  a  visionary,  vascillating,  hypercriti- 
cal "demigod,"  of  whom  we  never  know  whether  he  was  an  enthusiast 
or  an  impostor,  more  than  mortal  or  less  than  moral.  While  we  are 
carried  away  by  the  vividness  of  its  style,  we  find,  when  laying  the 
book  aside,  that  its  hero  has  dissolved  into  a  mass  of  the  most  conflict- 
ing tendencies.  His  other  works  in  the  same  line,  "  The  Apostles," 
"The  Anti-Christ,"  "Mark  Aurelius,"  although  marvels  of  literary 
art,  can  not  be  regarded  as  standard  works  on  the  origin  of  Christian- 
ity, if  jDut  to  the  test  of  critical  scholarship.  * 

But  Renan  was  one  of  the  few  to  whose  mind  it  was  clear  that 
without  the  proper  knowledge  of  Judaism  Christianity  could  not  be 
understood.  Hence  he  wrote  a  "History  of  Israel,"  which  displays 
all  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  famous  Frenchman.  Of  his 
great  a})preciation  of  Judaism,  the  fullowing  j)assages  give  ample 
proof: 

"For  a  philosophical  spirit,"  he  says,  "there  are  truly  in  the  past 
of  humanity,  only  three  histories  of  pi-ime  interest:  Greek  history, 
the  history  of  Israel,  and  the  history  of  Rome.  These  three  histories 
united  constitute  what  one  may  call  tiie  history  of  civilization,  for 
civilization  is  the  result  of  the  alternate  co-operation  of  Greece,  Judah, 
and  Rome.  .  .  .  Greece  presents  one  great  lack.  It  despised 
the  humble,  and  did  not  feel  the  need  of  a  just  God.  Its  phil()Soi)hers 
■were  exceedingly  tolerant  of  the  iniquities  of  this  world;  the  idea  of  a 
universal  religion  never  came  to  them.  It  was  the  fire  and  genius  of  a 
small  tribe,  established  in  a  lost  corner  of  Syria,  which  seems  to  have 
been  destined  to  supply  this-want  in  the  Hellenic  spirit.  The  prophets, 
beginning  with  the  ninth  century  before  Christ,  give  to  the  idea  of  a 
government  by  a  just  God  the  proportions  of  a  dogma.  These  are  the 
fanatics  of  social  justice,  and  they  proclaim  it  loudly  that,  if  the  world 
is  not  just  or  is  disinclined  to  become  so,  it  is  better  that  it  be  destroyed. 
Rome  represents /orce.     As  such,  it  has  conquered  tiie  world 

'  The  English  edition  was  published  in  Bostcjn.     (  RobcM'ts.) 


214  HrSTORY. 

for  the  Ideas  and  ideah  nurtured  in  Greece  and  in  Judea.  Thus  Rome, 
Greece,  and  Judea  have  histories  which  are  the  pivots  upou  which 
those  of  other  nations  turn,  and  these  one  has  the  right  to  call  provi- 
dential, because  their  place  is  marked  in  a  plan  superior  to  the  oscilla- 
tions of  all  the  days." 

Now,  while  no  Jewish  preacher  can  better  express  our  providen- 
tial mission,  we  must  not  intentionally  shut  our  eyes  regarding  the 
great  mistakes  of  Kenan's  |)eculiar  notions  on  the  religion  of  the 
Semites.  As  far  back  as  1859,  in  his  "  Comparative  History  of  the 
Semitic  Dialects,"  he  advanced  the  bold  theory  that  the  Semite  is  par- 
ticularly gifted  with  the  inoiiDtheistic  instinct,  because,  being  a  child 
of  tlie  desert,  which  symbolizes  monotony,  he  lacks  imagination  and 
the  gift  of  analysis  necessary  for  the  conception  of  a  multiplicity  of 
natural  forces  and  their  deification.  In  short,  the  Semite's  belief  in 
one  God  only  is  not  a  j^remgative,  a  higher  development  of  the  re- 
ligious idea,  but  the  very  opposite,  the  minimum  of  religious  fei'vor. 

The  fact,' however,  is  that  it  took  many  centuries,  of  hard  strug- 
gle and  patientf  labor  on  the  side  of  the  great  prophets  in  Israel  and 
Judah,  to  supplant  the  polytheistic  instinct  l\v  monotheism.  With 
this  "  race"  theory  Renan,  against  his  will,  became  the  spiritual  father 
of  what  is  now  called  "Anti-semitism,"  the  outgrowth  of  stupid  nation- 
alism and  conceited  chauvinism.  I  sav  unwittinglv.  For  when  the 
poisonous  seed  sown  by  his  hyj)othesis  thi-eatened  to  bear  dangerous 
fruit,  Renan  was  among  the  first  to  raise  his  voice  against  this 
"shame"  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  liis  famous  lecture  before  the 
Societe  d'Etudes  Juives,  on  "Judaism  from  the  point  of  view  of  Race 
and  Religion,"  he  corrected  by  uncontrovertible  proofs  from  our  history 
the  wrong  impression,  that  the  Jews  of  to-day  were,  an  unmixed 
Semitic  Race,  and  jiroved  that  the  jiurity  of  our  race  is  an  untenable 
myth. 

Yet  in  his  "History  of  Israel"  Renan  again  harjis  on  his  ex- 
ploded theory  of  original  distinctive  monotheism.  In  the  three  vol- 
umes of  this  in  many  respects  great  work  can  be  noticed  the  same  in- 
fluences of  ids  training  in  a  Catholic  Seminary,  of  his  national  French 
bias,  and  of  Ralionalisn),  which  are  the  niain  features  of  his  "La  vie 
de  Jesus."  Many  a  tribal  legend  or  Biblical  myth  is  represented  by 
him  as  a  clever  trick  of  Moses  and  other  leaders  practiced  on  the  people 
for  otherwise  good  purposes,  on  the  principle  that  the  aim  justifies  the 
means'.  He  reverses  the  idea  of  evolution  in  its  application  to  the 
Hebrews.  Elohim  is  for  him  originally  Universal  God.  "Jehovah," 
however,  the  "  Gotl  of  Israel,"  as  taught  by  the  prophets,  is  the 
nationalization  of  the  Deity,  and  a  lapse,  a  retrogression  from  "Uni- 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  215 

versal  Mouotheism."  But  the  very  opposite  is  the  case.  The  religious 
evolution  in  Israel  did  not  take  place  until  the  State  fell  and  Judah 
was  exiled.  It  was  in  the  Babylonian  captivity,  where  the  prophets 
first  emphasized  that  the  "  God  of  Israel,"  whose  service  consists  in  a 
righteous  life,  was  also  the  creator  of  the  Universe,' the  common  God 
and  father  of  the  whole  human  family.  The  most  prominent  critics 
of  Germany,  Holland,  and  England  subscribe  to  these  ideas  on  Israel's 
history,  Kuenen,  Wellhauseu,  and  others.  But  when  it  comes  to  a 
keen  appreciation  of  Biblical  poetry,  Renan's  "  Histi^ry  of  Israel"  can 
not  be  surpassed.  None  other  has  so  fully  grasped  the  true  function 
of  the  Hebrew  prophet  as  a  social  reformer,  as  the  preacher  of  a  no- 
bler morality,  than  Renan.  None  has  ever  so  fully  condemned  the 
social  system,  which  prevailed  then  and  prevails  now,  as  have  the 
])rophers,  those  men  of  fiery  eloquence  who  preached  in  tlie  name  of 
God  of  righteousness  who  abideth  with  the  humble  and  lowly,  who 
could  not  tolerate  oppression  and  high-handed  robbery.  To  have 
brought  out  this  gloi-y  of  prophetism,  is  the  signal  merit  of  Renan's 
'•  History  of  Israel."' 

From  a  secular  point  of  view  the  history  of  Israel  was  treated  by 
a  number  of  historians  of  that  time,  1  mention  amongothers,  Dancke.r, 
History  of  Antiquity,  Berlin,  1852,  and  Karl  Adolf,  Mciizel,  "His- 
tory of  the  State  and  Religion  of  the  Kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Judah" 
(Breslau,  1853).  They  form  a  pleasant  contrast  when  compared  with 
Ewald's  "  History."  Menzel  said,  in  the  preface  to  his  work,  that  it 
Avas  intended  to  free  the  educated  Germans  from  their  ignorance  and 
prejudice  concerning  the  history  of  Israel  by  means  of  an  unbiased 
and  scientific  treatment  of  the  important  subject.  Even  men  like 
Lessing,  Herder,  Bruno  Bauer,  Hegel,  and  Leo,  had  a  most  superficial 
conception  of  this  part  of  our  history.  Both  the  infidel  and  the  bigot 
have  assailed  the  character  of  the  Jew.  Between  the  two  the  fate  of 
the  Jew  has  been  not  unlike  that  of  the  lion  in  the  fable.  A  man 
called  the  attention  of  the  grim  king  of  the  forest  to  a  picture  repre- 
.senting  a  lion  vanquished  by  a  man  :  "  We  have  no  painters,"  was  his 
significant  reply.  In  like  manner  the  Jew's  only  answer  regarding 
the  falsifications  of  his  history  had  been  :  We  have  no  historians  of 
our  own. 

^  8ee  Geiger,  "  Renan  and  Strauss  "  appendix  to  his  Judaism  and  its 
history,  vol.  I  (Breslau,  1854,  Schletter) ;  Slavet's  criticism  of  Renan  iu 
Revue  de  Deux  Mondes ;  also  his  "  Le  Christianisme  ou  ses  Origines," 
and  Emil  Hirsch's  lecture  on  Renan,  Reform  Advocate  (18i)2,  pp.  17.")-17!>). 


216  HISTORY. 


III. 

If  it  is  true,  that  "  Wer  den  Dichter  will  versteheu  muss  in's 
Dichter's  Land  gehen  "  (If  you  desire  to  understand  the  poet,  you 
must  go  into  his  own  country),  then  it  is  also  true,  that  <>uly  a  Jew 
can  fnlly  appreciate  his- own  history.  It  was  necessary  to  emancipate 
our  histor}'  from  the  stamp  of  Christianity.  The  task  was  great,  and 
most  difficult,  but  it  has  been  accomplished.  The  first  attempt  of  this 
kind  was  made  by  a  young  man  of  Hungary,  Solomon  Loewisohn 
(born  in  Moor,  Hungary,  1789,  died  there,  1822),  who  unfortunately 
died  young,  afflicted  with  insanity.  His  was  a  poetical  nature,  and 
his  "Lectures  on  the  recent  History  of  the  Jews"  (Vienna,  1820),  prove 
talent  for  historiography.  He  unrolls  an  attractive  picture  of  our  his- 
tory from  tlie  beginning  of  the  dispersion  to  his  own  days.  Had  he  lived 
longer,  he  might  have  done  great  services  to  the  cause  of  Judaism.' 

Who  are  the  historians  of  Judaism  in  the  nineteenth  century  ? 
The  question  can  not  be  easily  answered.  It  is  just  as  difficult 
as  to  give  a  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question  "  Who  has  pro- 
duced the  scientific  and  religious  progress  of  our  age?  Or  who  is 
the  refo)-mer  of  Judaism  in  our  century?"  Not  any  one  man  in  par- 
ticular, but  hundreds  of  hands  have  been  and  are  still  active  in  this 
direction. 

The  '"Hep-Hep"  cry  against  the  Jews  in  Germany  in  1819 
aroused  them  to  the  study  of  their  historic  past.  To  know  what 
Judaism  is  and  might  be  it  was  necessary  to  ascertain  what  it  had 
been.  The  past  would  prove  the  index  of  the  future.  The  Jews 
trusted  that  the  image  of  Judaism,  if  presented  in  its  proper  light, 
would  remove  the  odium  which  rested  upon  them.  The  ten  years 
following  the  "Hep-Hep"  excitement  witnesssed  a  series  of  literary 
achievements  of  greatest  importance.  Leopold  Zunz,  Nachman 
Krochmal,  Solomon  Rappaport  laid  the  foundation  to  a  "Science  of 
Judaism  "and  discovered  the  thread  by  wiiich  they  were  enabled  to 
wend  their  way  through  the  labyrinth  of  Jewish  literature.  The  dim- 
ne.?s  and  vagueness  that  had  hung  over  the  history  of  the  Jews  was 
giving  way,  and  the  leading  figures  in  the  procession  of  past  genera- 
tions began  to  assume  clear  and  distinct  outlines.  A  baud  of  worthy 
disciples  followed  Zunz's  lead.  M.  Just,  Geiger,  Frankel,  Herzfeld, 
Dernburg,  Lebrecht,  S.  and  D,  Cassel,  Munk,  Kirchheim,  Carmoly, 
Graetz,  Brueck,  Brecher,  Fassel,  Heidenheim,  M.  Levy,  Steinschnei- 

'  See  Ills  l)ii)gra])liy  in  tlie  Literaturblatt  of  the  "Orient,"  1S40,  vol. 
10,  and  r,ctli-Kl  flSolJ,  paf,'e  72). 


HISTORIANS    OF   JUDAISM.  217 

der,  Landsluit,  Fueist,  Dukes,  A.  Jelliuek,  Luzzatto,  Reggio,  Creiz- 
eiiach,  M.  Sachs,  Franck,  Wolf,  Saalscluietz,  P.  Beer,  A.  Clioriu, 
Jolowicz,  Foi-mstecher,  Hesse,  Kaempf,  Joel,  S.  Stern,  Weclisler, 
Prof.  Weil,  Mayer,  S.  Meyer,  Abraham  Kohn,  Weil,  I.  M.  Wise, 
Ritter,  Jastrow,  L.  Loew,  Holdheini,  Neubauer,  S.  Sachs,  Salvador, 
Zediier,  Herxheimer,  M.  Bloch,  Stein,  S.  and  L.  Adler,  E.  Gruene- 
bauni,  S.  Hirsch,  Rothschild,  Einhorn,  Kohler,  N.  Bruell,  and  numer- 
ous others  in  all  lands  and  climes'  have  ever  since  added  and  are  still 
adding  valuable  stones  to  the  grand  structure  of  a  History  of  Judaism 
and  Jews,  which  is  not  yet  finished.  If  the  "Hep-Hep"  cry  is  the  in- 
direct cause  of  such  stupendous  activity  within  our  raidcs  we  may 
exclaim  with  Goethe,  "This  is  the  spirit  which  works  for  evil  and 
creates  the  good."  Let  us  hope  that  the  modern  "  Hep-Hej) "  cry  of 
Auti-semitisra  of  to-day  will  be  accompanied  by  a  similar  revival 
of  Juilaism. 

Among  those,  however,  who  made  Jewish  historiography  a 
specialty,  are  Peter  Beer,  who  published  a  "History,  Doctrines,  and 
Opinions  of  the  Religious  Sects  of  the  Jews"  (in  two  volumes,  I  vol. 
369,  II  vol.  459  pages,  Bruenn,  1822-1823).  The  work  gives  proof 
of  the  indefatigable  industry  of  the  author  and  of  his  great  familiarity 
Avith  the  Jewish  and  Christian  literature  of  the  middle  ages.  The 
author  does  not  claim  originality,  but  does  not  deserve  the  unkind,  in- 
sulting criticism  of  Graetz.''^ 

An  attempt  at  Jewish  historiography,  a  weak  attempt  at  that, 
was  made  in  the  French  language  bv  Leon  Halevy.  Although  the 
son  of  a  Hebrew  poet — his  father,  Elia  Halevy,  wrote  a  classical  He- 
brew— he  did  not  understand  the  Hebrew  language.  No  wonder  that 
his  "history"  is  no  success.  The  title  is,  ''Resume  de  I'histoire  des 
Juifs  anciens,"  in  two  volumes  (I,  1825;  II,  1828). 

Dr.  Marcus  Jost  (born  1793,  in  Bernburg;  died  18G0,  in  Frank- 
furt on  the  Main)  is  the  first  historian  of  this  century  who    undertook 

'  The  names  mentioned  here  belong  to  the  Jews.  There  are  many 
Christian  scholars  who  have  labored  incessantly  in  this  cause,  I  mention 
some:  Delitzsch,  Eertheau,  Ewald,  Hitzig,  Olshausen,  Kenan,  De  Wette, 
Umbreit,  Vatke,  Staehelin,  Eleek,  Keil,  Graf,  George,  Neander,  Fleischer, 
8ylvestre  de  Sacy,  DiUraann,  Roediger,  Merx,  Noeldeke,  Wuensche,  Schen- 
kel,  Holtzraann,  Kuenen,Strack,  Hausrath,  Haneberg,  Geseuiiis,  Hilgenfeld, 
Freytag,  Chwolson,  Benfey  and  others. 

•^  History  of  the  Jews,  vol.  XI,  page  457.  Peter  Beer  publislied  also 
two  volumes  of  Israel's  history  for  schools  (Prag,  1796 ;  Wien,  ISIO,  1815  ; 
Prag,  \8?A  ;  Wien,  1843),  entitled:  Toldoth  Jissrael.  The  book  was  trans- 
lated into  Russian  by  B.  Segall  and  .\.  Solonowitsch,  and  into  Polish  by 
Dr.  Diankowitz. 


218  HISTOKV. 

the  gigautic  task  to  write  a  "History  of  the  Israelites  from  the  time 
of  the  Maccabees  to  our  Day,"   uiue   volumes   (Berlin,   1820-1828, 
Schlesiuger).     Jest  was  a  pioneer  in  this  work,  without  predecessors 
of  any  amount,  and  deserves  tlie  gratitude  of  not  only  every  Jew,  but  > 
of  every  friend  of  truth,  justice,  and   science.     As  the   name  of  the 
work  indicates,  it  was  not  the  intention  of  the  autlior  to  give  a  history 
of  the  (jronih  and  development  of  Jndamii,  but  to  familiarize  his  co-relig- 
ionists in  particular  with  the  fiite  and  history  of  their  ancestors.     This 
W'ork  had  a  most  beneficial   effect  on  the  Jewish  community,  not  only 
of   Germany,   but  wherever  German   was  read   (Austria,   Hungary, 
Russia).     Jost  was  not  conceited.     He  calls  the  work  a  weak  attempt,' 
and  sees  in  Herzfeld's  "History  of  the  People  of  Israel,  from  tiie  De- 
struction of  the  First  Temple  to  Simon  the  Maccabee  "  (two  volumes, 
Nordhaussen,  1847),  a  progress  in  the  way  of  clearing  up  of  obscure 
parts,  a  result  of  excellent  research,  ability,  and  love  of  truth.     He 
appreciates  Selig  Cassel'.s  valuable  sketch  on  the  history  of  the  Jews 
in  Ersch  and  Gruber's  Encyclopaedia,  and  has  a  good  word  forGraetz. 
So  convinced  is  he  of  the  imperfections  of  his  work,  that  he  publishes 
a  weekly  periodical,  "The  Israelitish  Annals  for  History,  Literature, 
and   Cuhure  of   the    Jews"  (Frankfurt  on-M.,   1839-1841),  for   no 
other  purpose  than  to  study  history,  "  to  exchange  ideas  on   new  his- 
torical discoveries  and  to  find  out  the  trutli  concerning  doubtful  facts," 
There  is  indeed  great  progress  apparent  between  this  work  and  Jost's 
later  historical  contributions.     In    the   introduction    to  his  "  General 
History  of  the  Israelitish  People,"  in  two   volumes   (Leipzig,  1850), 
Jost  thanks  not  only  for  the  appi-eciation  of  iiis  first  work,  but  also  for 
the  criticisms,  corrections  of  the  sanie,  and   particularly  for  the  new 
material   offered   him   by  scholars.     As  a  supplement  to  the  nine  vol- 
umes Jost   added  a  "  Recent  History  of  the  Israelites  from  1815  to 
1845"  (Berlin,  1845-1847,  Schlesiuger),  so  that  virtually  his  "His- 
tory of  the  Israelites,"  contains  twelve  volumes. 

The  progress  of  Jost  as  a  historian  is  best  manifested  in  his  sci- 
entific treatment  of  the  "  History  of  Judaism  and  its  Sects,"  in  three 
volumes;  (Leipzig,  1857,  1858,  1859,  Doerffling  and  Franke).  Here 
is  given  not  a  history  of  the  Jews,  but  a  historical  development  of  Ju- 
daism as  a  progressive  force,  as  a  power  that  makes  foi-  righteousness. 
Jost  attempts  to  answer  the  all-absorbing  question  :  "  What  is  Juda- 
ism as  an  essential  moment  of  the  world's  history?  What  is  its  mis- 
sion and  its  position  in  the  history  of  the  development  (jf  civilization  ?" 
He  answers  these  questions  impartially,  free   from   any   liias,  on   the 

'  Stein:  Israclitischf-r  X'cjlksk'ln  r.  vol.  Ill,  pap-  :!(l(t. 


HISTORIANS    OF   JUDAISM.  219 

hand  of  historical  investigation,  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  truth.  Many 
errors  and  mistakes  in  former  publications  are  candidly  corrected  by 
the  author,  who  was  free  of  that  dictatorial  disposition  and  stubborn- 
ness of  opinion  so  characteristic  of  not  a  few  of  our  Jewish  scholars. 
As  nniim  pro  muliis  I  mention  his  change  of  opinion  concerning  the 
Talmud  and  Rabbinical  literature.  Wiiile  in  his  "  History  of  the  Is- 
raelites," the  Rationalist  Jost  had  hardly  a  good  word  foi-  this  long 
misunderstood  branch  of  Jewish  literature;  he  lakes  the  iiistorical 
critical  view  of  tlie  Talmud  in  his  "Judaism  and  its  Sects'"  (vol. 
II,  p.  211).  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  first  im|)ressions  con- 
cerning the  Talmud  were  gained  by  Jost  from  a  dirty  polish  teacher 
in  Wolfenbuttel,  whose  main  arguments  were  the  stick  and  the 
cudgel.  No  trace  of  a  historical  treatment  was  then  known.  Jost 
sees  in  the  Talmud  a  work  which,  far  from  fettering  thought,  has  stim- 
ulated profound  mental  activity  among  the  Jews  at  a  time  when  even 
bishops  and  knights  were  steeped  in  ignorance  and  superstition.  This 
work  may  be  justly  designated  as  the  "  top  stone  of  the  great  his- 
torical edifice  which  Jost  had  reared  S)  perfectly  from  the  outset." 

It  has  been  claimed,  and  not  without  some  justification,  that 
Jost's  historiography  is  rather  dry,  pedantic,  cool,  and  sober.  But  his 
very  exactness  and  desire  to  be  impartial  "objective" — as  the  Ger- 
mans well  express  it — to  write  with  his  mind  rather  than  with  his 
heart,  are  the  cause  of  this  failing.  If  it  is  a  fault  in  a  historian  to 
lack  the  fire  of  enthusiasm,  then  certainly  Jost  must  plead  guilty  in 
this  respect.  But  nevertheless  his  heart  beat  warady  for  the  Jews, 
his  mission  and  religion.  His  thorough  knowledge  o'f  the  classics 
greatly  facilitated  his  work,  which,  even  in  style,  improved  wiih  every 
new  volume.  There  is  nothinsr  half-hearted,  vacillatinsr,  inconsistent 
and  unmanly  in  Jost's  historiography.  I  doubr  very  much,  whether 
in  all  the  seventeen  volumes  on  Jewish  history  written  by  Jost,  one 
passage  can  be  found  which  could  give  proof  of  intentional  injustice 
done  by  him  to  any  person.  When  we  consider  the  vast  amount  of 
reading  necessary  for  the  accomplisJiment  of  such  a  gigantic  task,  and 
bear  in  mind  that  the  sources  from  which  he  could  derive  information 
were  scanty  in  his  days,  we  are  compelled  to  say  that  Jost's  perse- 
verance in  the  prosecution  in  his  great  work  must  have  been  won- 
derful. 

After  the  labors  of  Jost,  Herzfeld,  Zunz,  Geiger  and  others,  the 

work   of  another   modern  Jewish   historian   was    naturally   made   infi- 

'  I  call  attention  to  Goklschmidt's  biography  of  Jost  in  the  "  Jalirbucl) 
fuer  (He  Geschichte  derJuden"  (vol.  II,  Leipzig,  ISCil,  jiage  1 — XXII),  and 
Zh-ndorJ.  Jost  und  seine  Freunde  (Cincinnati,  18S(J). 


220  HISTORY. 

iiitely  easier.  We  come  now  to  Professor  Hirsch  Graetz,  born  at 
Ixions,  Poseu,  1817  ;  died  at  Breslaii,  1891.  Prolific  as  a  writer,  it  is 
tiie  historian  of  the  Jews  who  will  occupy  <'"i'  attention.  His  "  History 
of  the  Jews"  was  begnn  in  1853  with  the  fourtii  volume,  followed  in 
1850  with  the  third,  in  1800  with  the  fifth,  and  so  on,  until  the  eleven 
volumes  were  finished  in  1870. 

The  nearest  approach  to  a  history  of  Judaism,  as  it  ought  to  l)e 
written,  is  Geiger's  "Judaism  and  Its  History,"  in  lectures,  containing 
three  volumes  (Breslau,  1804,  1805,  1871,  Schletter),  but  the  work  is 
too  short  and  not  complete. 

Of- Jewish  historians  who  have  treated  special  portions  of  our  his- 
tory, I  mention  Herzfeld,  who  iias  published  the  "  History  of  Israel 
from  the  Destruction  of  the  First  Temple  to  the  High-priest  Simon  the 
JNIaccabee"  (3  volumes,  Nordhausen,  1847,  1855,  1857,  and  condensed 
in  one  volume,  Leipzig,  1870)  ;  Joseph  Salvador,  born  in  Montpellier, 
France,  1790,  died  in  Paris,  1873,  although  a  physician,  devoted  his 
nitention  to  Jewish  history.  He  published  a  "  Histoire  de  la  Domi- 
nation Romaine  on  Judee"  (two  volumes,  1847),  translated  in  German 
by  Dr.  Ludwig  Eichler  (Bremen,  1847).  He  is  ingenious,  looks  on 
Judaism  mainly  as  a  protest  against  Christianity,  and  makes  little  use 
of  Jewish  sources.  His  "Histoire  des  Institutions  de  INIoise  et  du 
Peuple  Hebreu  "  (three  volumes,  1828),  passed  through  several  edi- 
tions, and  was  translated  into  German  by  Dr.  Esseuna  with  a  preface 
of  Dr.  Gabriel  Riesser  (Hamburg,  1836).  The  work  protests  against 
those  who  tried  to  find  in  the  Bible  a  justification  for  the  oppression  of 
the  peoj)le  and  against  the  Rationalists,  who  attacked  the  Bible  as  the 
stronghold  of  despotism  and  feudalism,  by  proving  that  the  Kingdom 
of  Jehovah  is  identical  with  tlie  dominion  of  freedom,  justice,  reason 
imd  truth;  in  short,  that  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  are  the  ele- 
tnents  of  the  Mo.saic  legislation.  Salvador  lays  moi'e  stress  on  the 
political  and  social  than  on  the  religious  moment  of  the  institutions  of 
Israel.  Dr.  Moses  Kaiserling,  Rabbi  in  Buda-Pesth  (born  at  Han- 
nover, June  17,  1829),  devotes  Ids  historical  researches  to  the  Iberian 
peninsula.  His  works  which  deserve  special  mention  are,  "A  Holi- 
day in  Madrid,"  1859,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Spain,"  "  History  of 
the  Jews  in  Portugal,"  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Navarra"  (Berlin, 
1861),  "The  Jewish  Women  in  History,  Literature  and  Art"  (Leip- 
zig, 1879).  Quite  a  number  of  .special  histories  of  the  Jews  in  different 
cities  have  been  published,  some  of  which  may  find  a  place  here,  B. 
H.  Auerbach,  "  History  of  the  Jewish  Congregation  in  Halherstadt" 
{Prague,  1800).  H.  Barbeck,  a  Christian  writer,  published  a  "His- 
tory  of   tl;e    Jews    in    Nuernberg  and    Fnerth "    (Nuernberg,    1878). 


HISTORrA>'S    OF   JUDAISM.  '  221 

C.  Biiscli,  a  Jewish  teacher  in  ^ruehlheim,  ))uhli?hefl  "  History 
of  the  Jews  in  Coehi  and  Vicinity"  (first  volume,'  Muehlheim,  1879). 
An  excellent  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Coein  "  was  published  by 
Enist  Weyded,  a  Christian,  in  1867  ;  Dr.  Bergel,  a  physician,  pub- 
lished a  "  History  of  the  Hungaiian  Jews"  (Leipzig,  1880)  ;  Berndt, 
a  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Gross-Glogau ;"  S.  J.  Bloch,  "The  Jews 
in  Spain"  (1880)  ;  M.  Gruenwald,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Bohemia" 
(vol.  1,  Pissek,  1880)  ;  Dr.  Guedemau,  contribntion  to  the  "  History 
of  the  Jews  in  Middle  Ages"  (3  volumes,  Vienna,  1888);  L.  Herz- 
feld,  "  History  of  the  Commerce  of  the  Jews  in  Antiquity"  (Braunsch- 
weg,  1879),  a  work  distinguished — as  are  all  the  writings  of  Herzf'eld — 
by  deep  research  ;  G.  Haenle,  "  Historyof  the  Jewsin  Ansbach"  (1867) ; 
A.  Jaraczewsky,  "  History  of  the  Jew^s  in  Erfurt"  (Erfui-t,  1868)  ;  J. 
F.  Herman,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Bohemia"  (Vienna,  1819)  ;  H. 
Jolowicz,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Koenigsberg"  (1867)  ;  G.  Kreigk, 
"  History  of  the  Jews  in  Frankfurt  in  Middle  Ages"  (Frankfurt-on- 
M.,  1862)  ;  J.  Benjacob  and  S.  G.  Stern,  "Shem  Haggedolim  "  [names 
of  great  men]  and  "  Vaad  Lachachamira,"  edited  by  Asulai,  cor- 
rected (Leipzig,  1844)  ;  S.  Bonhard,  "  Biogi-aphy  of  R.  Joseph  ben 
Koheu"  (Lemberg,  1859),  in  Hebrew;  Solomon  Buber,  "Biography 
of  Elia  Levita  "  (Leipzig,  1856),  in  Hebrew  ;  S.  L.  Friedenstein,  "  Ir 
Gibborim,  History  of  the  Jews  in  Grodno"  (Wilna,  1880);  Loeweii- 
stein,  "  History  of  the  Jews  on  the  Bodensee  "  (Konstanz,  1879)  ;  J. 
Perles,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Posen  "  (1865);  D.  J.  Podiebrad, 
"Antiquities  of  the  Josefstadt  Jewish  Cemetery  and  Synagogues  in 
Prague"  (Prague,  1882);  K.  Schaab,  "Diplomatic  History  of  the 
Jews  in  INIainz"  (Mainz,  Victor  v.  Zabern,  1855). 

The  last-named  book  contains  480  pages,  and  was  written  by  the 
Vice-President  of  the  Circuit  Court  in  Mainz  in  the  ninety-fourth 
year  of  his  life.  It  would  be  a  blessing  fn-  American  Judaism,  if  our 
Jews  of  to-day  would  comprehend  as  well  as  this  Christian  what  w'e 
stand  for.  Much  wild,  foolish  talk,  which  is  so  popular  in  our  lodges, 
the  nonsensical  declamations  about  our  race,  would  cease  then.  He 
says,  in  the  prefoce,  that  the  Jews  are  an  extraordinary  appearance  in 
history,  which  can  only  be  explained  from  the  religiovs  point  of  view, 
"  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Jews  are  a  religious  people,  and  that 
the  religion  is  their  essential  bond  of  union.  They  possess  one  faith,  one 
hope,  one  fate." 

To  this  class  belong  Dr.  A.  Stein's  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Dan- 

^  I  do  not  think  that  a  second  part  appeared.     The  first  part  ends  witli 
the  "  Bkck  Death  "  (1348). 


222         .         •*■  .  HISTORY. 

zig"  (Danzig,  1860),  from  the  fourteenth  century  to  this  time;  H.  Stern- 
berg's "  HLstory  of  the  Jews  in  Poland  ;"  0.  Stobbe's  "  The  Jews  of 
Germany  During  the  Middle  Ages"  (1860)  ;  S.  Tausig's  "  History  of 
the  Jews  in  Bavaria  ;"  Prof.  G.  Wolf's  "  History  of  the  Israelitish 
Congregation  of  Vienna  from  1816  to  1861  "  (Vienna,  1862)  ;  "  Con- 
tribution to  the  History  of  the  Jews  in  Worms"  (Berlin,  1862); 
"  Ferdinand  11.  and  the  Jews"  (Vienna,  1859)  ;  "  Expulsion  of  the 
Jews  from  Bohemia"  (1861)  ;  M.  Friedlander's  "  History  of  the  Jews 
in  Moravia"  (1876)  ;  L.  Dnnatii's  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Mecklen- 
burg" (1874)  ;  E.  Carmoly,  "  Biographies  of  Old  and  Modern  Israelites" 
(jNIetz,  1828) ;  only  one  volume  was  published  ;  S.  L.  Rappaport, 
"  Kore  Hadoroth,"  history  of  the  Jews  from  the  Hasmoneans  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Second  Temple,  one  volume  (Warschau,  1838)  ; 
Jos.  Epstein,  "  History  of  Russia,"  with  special  regard  to  Jewish  his- 
tory (Wilna,  1872)  ;  E.  Schreiber,  "History  of  the  Jewish  Congre- 
gation in  Bonn  "  '  (Bonn,  1879),  published  in  honor  of  the  dedication 
of  the  Synagogue;  Dr.  Samuel  Meyer,  "The  Jurisprudence  of  the 
Israelites,  Romans,  and  Athenians"  (three  volumes,  1876).  The 
first  volume  treats  on  "Public  Right,"  the  second  on  "Private 
Right,"  the  third  on  "The  History  of  the  Penal  Laws  of  all  Civilized 
Nations  from  Moses,  Solon,  etc.,  to  the  Present  Day"  (Trier,  Fr.  Lintz, 
703  pages).  The  first  two  volumes  were  published  by  Baumgaertner 
in  Leipzig.  The  author,  who  officiated  as  Rabbi  in  Hechingeu,  prac- 
ticed at  the  same  time  law  in  that  city.  The  mass  of  material  stored 
up  in  this  scholarly  work  is  something  stupendous.  It  is  a  standard 
work  to  this  day.  Dr.  Julius  Fuerst  published  a  "  History  of  Kara- 
ism,"  in  three  volumes  (Leipzig,  1862-69)  ;  Franz  Delitzch,  "Anecdota 
to  the  History  of  jNIediteval  Scholastic"  (1841);  S.  Pins^ker,  Likkute 
A7(c/mo?n'?/o/A,  contributions  to  the  "History  of  the  Kai'aiies"  (Wieu, 
1860,  in  Hebrew);  A.  Neubauer,  "From  the  Petersburg  Library 
Documents  to  the  History  of  the  Karaites  and  their  Literature" 
(Leij)zig,  1866). 

Geiger,  Firkowitch,  Chwolson,  Deinard,  J.  Kasas,  M.  Toetter- 
mann,  A.  Harkavy,  and  Strack  have  done  great  work  in  this  branch 
of  Jewish  history.  Dr.  Berliner  published  "  Inner  Life  of  the  Ger- 
man Jews  in  Middle  Ages"  (Berlin,  LSW).     Dr.  S.  Baeck's  "The 

'  I  was  retjuestod  by  tlie  Conjjrejjjation  of  Uouik  wIutc  I  officiated  iis 
Ral)bi  from  1878  to  1881,  to  write  this  liistory,  whicli  gives  also  a  justifica- 
tion of  my  recomnicndation  and  introduction  of  (Jciger's  Prayerbook  in 
the  Synagogue  of  I'lonn,  a  st('[)  which  is  considered  even  to-day  radical  in 
German  V. 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  22.'> 

History  of  tlie  Jewish  Nation  aii-.l   its  Liteniture  from  the  Bal)ylouiai) 
Exile  to  the  Present  "  ( Lizza,  1877)  is  a  good  school-book.     We  object, 
however,  to  the  term  "Jewish  Nation."     In  the  same  style  are  Des- 
•sailer's  "History  of  tlie  Israelites"  (Breslau,  1870),  Emanuel  Hecht's 
"Israel's  History"  (Leipzig,   1865  and  1885).     The   latter  deserves 
recoramendaticm.     M.   Braunschweiger  published  a  "  History  of  the 
Jews  in  the  Roman  States  700   to  1200  b.  Chr."  ( Wien,  1865)  ;  Dr. 
Dozy,  "The  Israelites  at  Mecca  from  the  Time  of  David  to  the  Fifth 
Century"'  (Leipzig,  1864);  E.  B.  Feder,  "Israel's  Temple  of  Honor  " 
(3  volumes),  1840;   Friedman,   "Pictures  of  Jewish   History  "  (Pest, 
1860)  ;  S.  Goldschmidt,   "  History  of  the  Jews   in    England    in  the 
Xlth  and  XII  Century  "  (Berlin,  1886);  Finn,  "Kirjah  Neemanah, 
History  of  the  Jews  in  Wilna"  (Wilna,  1860,  333  pages)  ;  Zimmerman, 
"  History  of  the  Jews  in  Silesia"  (Breslau,  1791)  ;  Kaiserling,  "  Li- 
brary of  Jewish  Preachers"  (two  volumes,  Berlin,  1870-72),  contains 
about  forty  short  sketches  of  the  lives  of  prominent  Jewish  preachers  and 
samples  of  their  sermons;   M.  Horowitz,  "Rabbis  of  Frankfort"  (in 
four  volumes,  Frankfurt  on  the  Main,  1885)  ;    A.  Jellinek,  "History 
of  the  Crusades"  (1853)  ;  I.  Gastfreund,  "Biography  of  the  Taunai 
Rabbi  Akiba   ben  Joseph  "  (Lemburg,  1871)  ;    G.  M.  S.   Ghirondi, 
"  Onomasticon  of    Jewish  Scholars"  (Triest,   1853)  ;    Julius  Fuerst, 
"Biography  of  Dr.   Marcus  Herz"  (Berlin,  1850);  M.  L.   Belinson, 
"  Toldoth  Jashar,  Biography  of  Solomon  del  JNIedigo,"  from  the  Ger- 
man of  Dr.  Abraham  Geiger  (Odessa,   1864)  ;  Malvezin,   "  Histoire 
des  Juifs  a  Bordeaux"  (Bordeaux,  1875);  Aretin,   "History  of  the 
Jews  in  Bavaria"  Landau,  1803)  ;  H.  Baerwald,'"  The  Old  Cemetery 
of  the  Israel  Congregation  in  Frankfort   on  the   Main  "  (Frankfort, 
1883)  ;  Brieglieb,  "Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Nurnberg"  (1868)  ; 
A.  Gierse,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Westphalia"  (Naumburg,  1879)  ; 
Heffner,  "The  Jews  in  Franken "  (Nurnberg,  1855);  J.  M.  Zunz, 
"  History  of  the  Rabbinate  in  Krakau  from  the  Sixteenth  Century  to 
the  Present"  (Lemberg,  1874). 

F.  W.  Weber,  "The  Jews  and  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages" 
(Noerdlinger,  1862)  ;  C.  F.  Walsher,  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  Wuer- 
temberg"  (Tuebiugen,  1852);  L.  Landshut,  "Berlin  Rabbis,  Toldot 
Anshe  Hashem  "  (Berlin,  1883) ;  J.  Ritter,  "  The  Jewish  Free  School 
in  Berlin"  (Berlin,  1883)  ;  R.  Hoeniger,  "The  Black  Plague  in  Ger- 
many "  (Berlin,  1882) ;  Sheppler,  "The  Abolition  of  the  Body-tax  for 
the  Jew"  rHauau,  1805);   K.  Lieben,  "  Galed,  Epitaphs  at  the  Old 

'  Translated  frdiii  tlic  Diilcli  into  (ioniiaii. 


224  HISTORY. 

Cemetery  of  the  Jews  in  Prague"  (Prague,  1856);  Dr.  Marcus  Jast- 
row,  "  Four  Centuries  of  the  History  of  the  Jews  fi-otn  the  Destruc- 
tion of  the  First  Temple  to  the  Dedication  of  the  Second  Temple  under 
the  Maccabees  "  (Heidelberg,  1865). 

M.  Joel,  "  Relation  of  Albert  Magnus  to  Maimonides  ;"  Prof.  M. 
A.  Levy,  "  Don  Joseph  Nassi  Hagay  of  Naxos"  (1859);  L.  Levy- 
sohn,  "  Sixty  Epitaphs  at  the  Cemetery  in  Worms,  from  the  Year  905 
to  the  Present,"  with  biographies  (Frankfort,  1855)  ;  Moccatta,  "  The 
Jews  in  Spain  and  Portugal,"  translated  into  German  by  Kaiserling 
(Hanover,  1878)  ;  J.  Muenz,  "Jewish  Physicians  in  the  Middle  Ages" 
(Berlin,  1887)  ;  L.  Oelsner,  "  Silesian  Archives  to  the  History  of  the 
Jews"  (Vienna,  1864)  ;  Pli.  Philippson,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Jos. 
Wolf,  Moses  Philipsohn,  Gotthold  Salomon  and  others,  in  three  parts 
(Leipzig,  1866);  Salfeld,  "Biography  of  Dr.  Sal.  Herxheimer " 
(Frankfurt,  1885)  ;  Emanuel  Schreiber,  "Abraham  Geiger  as  Re- 
former of  Judaism  "  (Loebau,  1879,  158  pages)  ;  N.  Samuely,  "Pict- 
ures of  Jewish  Life  in  Galicia"  (Lemberg,  1885);  H.  Schlesinger, 
"Chronological  Hand-book  of  the  History  of  the  Jews"  (1872); 
Moise  Schwab,  "  Histoire  des  Israelites,  depuis  I'edification  du  Second 
Temple  jusqn'a  nos  jours"  (Paris,  1866)  ;  Leopold  Loew  (pseudonym 
Dr.  Weil),  "  Aron  Chorin "  (Szegedin,  1863);  E.  Willstaetter, 
"General  History  of  the  Israelitish  People"  (Karlsruhe,  1836),  for 
schools. 

Of  greatest  importance  to  the  historical  literature  of  the  Jews  in 
this  century  are  the  numerous  year  books  and  magazines,  of  which  I 
mention,  Leopold  Zunz's  "Magazine  for  the  Science  of  Judaism  " 
(Berlin,  1823);  Abraham  Geiger's  "Scientific  Magazine  for  Jewish 
Theology  "  (1836-1843)  ;  most  valuable  and  instrumental  in  creating 
the  historical-critical  school  of  ReforrivRabbinism.' 

Jost's  "Annals  for  Plistory,"  etc.  (1839-41);  Zach.  Frankel's 
"Magazine  for  the  Religious  Interests  of  Judaism  "  (1844-1846); 
"Monthly  for  the  Science  of  Judaism,"  continued  by  Graetz  (1851- 
1882);  now  again  taken  up  by  Dr.  Brann.  "Year-book  for  the  His- 
tory of  tiie  Jews  and  Judaism,"  four  volumes  (Leipzig,  1860,  1861, 
1863,  1869,  Oscar  Leiner),  under  the  auspices  of  the  Jewish  Publica- 
tion Society  in  Germany,  under  the  management  of  L.  Philip[)S()n, 
Jost,  (jJoldschmidt,  Heiv.feld  and  others. 

Bueclnier's  "  Year-l)ook  for  18(54;"  Joseph  v.  Wertheim's  "Year- 
book  for  Israelites"  (1854-1868),  with  contributions  from  Jellinek, 

'  .See  my  "  Uc-formed  .Judaism  and  its  Pioneers"  (IS'JL'),  pages  284-28G. 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  225 

August  Franke],  Koinpert  and  others  ;  M.  Bresslauer's  "  German  Al- 
nianac  for  Israelites"  (1850-51),  has  contributions  from  the  pen  of 
ZuiiZf  Geiger,  Honigmau,  Muuk,  Dr.  F.  Cohn,  Jos.  Wertheinier  and 
others.  The  German-Israelitisti  Confederation  of  Congregations  (Ge- 
meindebund),  published  in  l'S89  a  statistical  year-book.  Year-books 
were  also  published  by  Klein  and  Isidor  Busch,  the  latter  in  Vienna 
(1840-1847). 

But  the  palm  must  be  given  to  the  "Year-book  for  Jewish  His- 
tory and  Literature,"  edited  by  Dr.  Nehemias  Bruell,  the  erudite  suc- 
cessor of  Geiser  in  the  Eabbinate  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main.  Mints 
of  historical  material  are  preserved  in  the  volumes  of  these  year-books 
(1874^1889),  which  g\ve  midtum  in  parvo.  We  meet  here  in  every 
respect  with  the  scientific  acumen  and  courage  of  opinion  of  a  Zunz 
and  Geiger.  Fuerst's  "Orient"  (1841-1851);  Loew's  "Ben  Chan- 
anya"  (1858-1867);  Stein's  "  Volkslehrer"  (1851-69) ;  "Revue  des 
Etudes  Juives"  (Paris,  1880),  still  in  existence,  and  Prof.  Liidwig 
Geiser's  "Magazine  for  the  History  of  the  Jews  in  Germany,"  which 
is  published  since  1887  under  the  auspices  of  the  German  Israel- 
iiisli  "  Gemeindebund,"  offer  treasures  to  the  Jewish  historii)gra- 
pher. 

The  history  of  modern  Judaism,  i.  e. ,  of  Judaism  since  Moses 
Mendelsohn  is  comparatively  not  well  represented.  The  reason  for 
this  peculiar  state  of  affairs  can  easily  be  discovered.  The  Jewish  his- 
toriography of  to-day  is  to  a  great  extent  in  the  hands  of  the  liabbis, 
who,  while  certainly  able  to  treat  the  subject,  are  not  blessed  with  the 
necessary  courage  of  opinion  and  manliness  to  do  justice  to  such  a 
subject.  The  present  generation  of  Rabbis  in  Germany  is  in  this  re- 
spect different  from  the  leaders  of  German  Judaism  half  a  century 
ago,  when  men  like  Geiger,  Holdheira,  Eiuhoru,  Samuel  Hirsch, 
Wechsler,  and  Hess  were  not  afraid  to  tackle  the  burning  questions 
and  live  issues  of  the  day.  The  Rabbis  of  to-day  in  Germany  are 
shrewd  business  men,  and  therefore  avoid  to  write  on  subjects  and  per- 
sons within  the  memory  of  men  for  fear  they  might  make  an  enemy 
on  the  one  or  tiie  other  side  of  the  camp.  They  therefore  shrewdly 
live  up  to  the  maxim,  "  silence  is  gold,"  are  happy  and  contented,  live 
in  peace  and  rest,  without  being  disturbed  or  disturbing  others.  "  If 
there  be  only  peace  in  my  days,"  Rak  sholom  jihjeh  Uijamai.  Apres 
nous  le  deluge. 

Dr.  Sio-ismLmd  Stern's  "  History  of  Judaism  from  Mendelsohn  to 
the  Present"  (Frankfort-on-the-Main,  1857);  Dr.   Immanuel  Ritter's 
15 


226  HISTORY. 

"  History  of  the  Jewish  Reformation,"  3  volumes;^  Geiger's  life  in 
letters  (Vol.  V  of  his  posthumous  works,  Berlin,  1875,  Gerschel)  ;  my 
"Abraham  Geiger  as  Reformer,"  and  Zirndorf's  "Jost  and  his  Fritsuds" 
(Cincinnati,  1886),  are  about  all  tlie  German  works  of  that  period. 
Stern  was  the  man,  whose  electrifying  lectures  on  the  "  Mission  of 
Judaism"  (Berlin,  1845),  and  on  the  "Religion  of  Judaism"  (1846), 
have  aroused  the  indifferent  Berlin  Jews  from  letharey  and  brouirht 
about  the  formation  of  the  famous  "  Reformgenossenschaft,"  now 
"  Reforra-Gemeinde  "  in  Berlin,  which  was  presided  over  by  Holdiieim, 
and  is  to  this  day  the  only  radical  Reform-Congregation  in  Europe. 
But  while  Stern  was  a  fiery  German  orator  and  appeared  on  the  scene 
at  the  proper  time,  he  was  not  endowed  with  sufficient  theological 
scholarship  as  to  enable  him  to  do  full  justice  to  the  subject.  His 
"history  "  is  interestingly  written  for  the  masses.  Ritter's  "  history  " 
is  written  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Berlin  "  Reform-Gemeinde," 
almost  ignoring  and  belittling  the  work  of  others  in  this  direction, 
and  showing  little  understanding  for  the  causa  movens  of  the  great 
struggle.     Aside  from  this,  Ritter  was  no  theologian. 

In  this  connection  I  mention  Samuel  Holdheim's  "  History  of  the 
Origin  and  Development  of  the  Jewish  Reform-Congregation  in  Ber- 
lin "  (Berlin,  1857,  Springer,  254  pages,  which  is  very  valuable)  ;  Lud- 
wig  Geiger's  "Abraham  Geiger's  Life  in  Letters"  (Berlin,  1875,  Ger- 
schel) ;  and  my  criticism  on  Graetz's  history,  "  Graetz's  Geschichts- 
bauerei"  (Berlin,  1881,  Issleib). 

We  have  seen  that  German  scholarship  has  contributed  the  lion's 
share,  so  far  as  Jewish  history  is  concerned. 

We  possess  very  few  books  on  the  subject  in  the  Elnglish  lan- 
guage.    Following  deserve  special  mention  : 

"An  Apology  for  the  Honorable  Nation  of  the  Jews  and  all  the 
Sons  of  Israel,"  by  Edward  Nicholas  (London,  1648,  15  pages),  is  a 
readable  pamphlet  in  which  the  misfortunes  of  the  British  Isle  are  at- 
tributed to  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England.  Tovey,  "Anglia 
Judaica,  or  the  History  of  the  Jews  in  England"  (Oxford,  17o8)  ; 
Manasse  ben  Israel's  "  Humble  Address  and  Declaration  to  the  Com- 
monwealth of  England,"  and  "  Vindiciae  Judaeorum,  or  a  letter  in 
answer  to  certain  questions  Impounded  by  a  Noble  and  Learned 
Gentleman  touching  to  reproaches  cast  on  the  nation  of  the  Jews" 
(London,  1656).     This  work  was  translated  into  Hebrew  and  German, 

'  Kirst  part,  Mendelsolm  and  Lcssing;  II,  David  Krie<llander  (]8()1); 
III,  llMl.llicini  (1,S(55). 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  227 

by  Moses  Mendelsohn,  under  the  title,  "  Rettung  der  J uden  "  (Tesh- 
uath  Yisroel,  1848). 

Milman,  "History  of  the  Jews  from  the  Time  of  Abraham  to 
1830;"  Dean  Stanley,  "  History  of  the  Jewish  Church"  (•>  volumes), 
both  from  a  Christian  point  of  view,  the  latter  scholarly  and  in  ac- 
cord with  modern  science.^  This  work  is  the  result  of  the  lectures 
which  Stanley  delivered  in  Oxford  (1862).  Samuel  JNI.  Smucker, 
"  History  of  the  Modern  Jews  from  the  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  to 
the  Present  Time"  (Philadelphia,  1860,  D.  Rulison).  While  the 
author  is  well-meaning  and  unbiased,  he  has  very  little  knowledge  of 
the  subject.  He  styles,  for  instance,  as  "  modern  Jews,"  all  the  Jews 
living  after  Jesus.  The  following  is  certainly  far  from  correct :  "  Both 
parties,  the  radical  and  conservative,  adhere  to  the  great  cardinal  doc- 
trine, that  the  promised  Messiah  is  yet  to  come,  and  will  establish  a 
temporal  kingdom  of  superior  jwiver  and  splendor  at  Jerusalem  "  (p.  329) . 

The  fact  is,  that  the  Reformers  have  long  given  up  this  belief, 
and  it  is  a  question  whether,  in  America,  even  the  so-called  "  conserva- 
tive" Jews  subscribe  to  this  doctrine. 

Prof.  Abraham  De  Sola,  Rabbi  at  Montreal,  published  "  Notes 
on  the  Jews  in  Persia,"  "Life  of  Sabbathai  Zebi,"  "  History  of  the 
Jews  in  France,"  and  "  History  of  the  Jews  in  England,"  in  Isaac 
Leeser's  Occident.  The  first  Jew  who  published  in  good  English  a 
"  Post-Biblical  History  of  the  Jews,  from  the  Close  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  Destruction  of  the  Second  Temple"  (2  volumes,  Philadel- 
phia, 1856,  Moss  &  Brothers),  was  the  New  York  Rabbi,  Morris  J. 
Raphall,  born  Sept.  1798,  in  Stockholm,  Sweden,  died  June  23,  1868, 
in  New  York.  The  work,  written  in  good  English,  exhibits  profound 
knowledge,  a  strict  conformity  to  truth,  and  enthusiastic  love  and 
patriotism  for  the  United  States  of  America  and  its  free  institutions. 
It  is  not  a  learned  work,  as  the  author  himself  says,  but  it  is  in- 
structive, interesting  and  fair.  The  author  justly  remarks,  that  rigid 
impartiality  can  not  well  be  maintained,  inasmuch  as  "  he  is  not  the 
abstraction  of  a  Jew,  but  one  living,  acting,  feeling  warmly  for  men 
whose  descendant  he  is,  whose  deeds  and  sufferings  he  is  about  to  re- 
late." The  first  volume  contains  405,  the  second  486  pages.  Tiie 
same  period  of  history  is  treated  by  Humphrey  Prideaux  in  the  En- 
glish language. 

Our  venerable  Dr.  I.  M.  Wise  is  to  mv  knowlediro  the  first  Rabbi 
who  has  undertaken  the  dangerous  task  to  write,  as  early  as  1854,  his 
well-known  "History  of  the  Israelitish  Nation"  from  its  very  begin- 

'  The  American  edition,  New  York,  1884,  Cliarles  Scribner. 


228  HISTORY. 

iiings.  Not  one  of  the  Jewish  historians;  possessed  the  courage  to 
write  a  histoi-y  of  Israel  from  a  radical  point  of  view.  Graetz  pub- 
lished the  first  volume  of  his  "History"  one  year  before  Wise  com- 
menced with  the  "Four  Generations  of  the  Tanaaim,"  thus  starting 
with  the  fourth  volume.  Although  it  is  claimed  that  Graetz  did  so 
because  he  wanted  to  find  material  for  biblical  history  in  Palestine,  it 
is  an  open  secret,  that  considerations  of  polic}'  prompted  him  not  to 
touch  on  ground,  by  which  he  could  easily  forfeit  his  position  as  teacher 
in  a  Seminary  for  the  training  of  conservative  Rabbis. 

In  his  first  volume,  which  treats  the  history  from  Abraham  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebukadnezzar,  we  notice  all  the  strong 
and  weak  points  of  rationalism.  This  name  covers  the  attempt  to  save 
the  letter  at  the  expense  of  the  spirit,  reduces  biblical  miracles  to 
commonplace,  natural  occurrences,  and  makes  of  the  prophets  jug- 
glers, sleight-of-hand  perfoi^mers,  and  conscious  frauds,  who  performed 
seeming  miracles,  or  reported  them  as  miracles,  contrary  to  their  better 
knowledge  of  the  actual  facts.  Kenan's  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  and  in  fact 
also  his  later  writings  on  the  "  Origin  of  Christianity,"  and  the  first 
two  volumes  of  Graetz's  "  history,"  although  published  in  the  seventies, 
still  bear  the  stamp  of  this  sham  liberalism  which  makes  of  the  Bible 
a  book  of  fiction,  the  child  of  crafty  priests  and  artful  impostors,  wlio 
merely  wanted  to  delude  the  people.  Barring  this  objection,  the  book 
is  not  only  instructive,  but  written  with  a  heart  full  of  enthusiasm  and 
fiery  zeal  for  Judaism  and  its  world-redeeming  mission. 

The  second  volume  of  this  work,  although  an  independent  pub- 
lication, is  entitled :  "History  of  the  Hebrews'  Second  Commonwealth  " 
(Cincinnati,  1880,  Bloch  &  Co.),  and  contains  386  pages.  A  great  pro- 
gress is  discernible  to  him  who  compares  the  two  books.  The  author 
justly  claims  for  the  work  to  be  "a  history  without  miracles,  history 
constructed  on  the  law  of  causality,  where  every  event  appears  as  the 
natural  consequence  of  its  preceding  ones."  The  learned  author  has 
carefully  consulted  ancient  and  modern  sources,  especially  the  Rabbin- 
ical Midrashic  literature,  and  has  thrown  sonie  new  light  on  the  most 
important  period  of  our  history.  The  treatment  of  "  Herod  and 
Hillel,"  "  The  Messianic  Commotion,"  "  John  the  Baptist,"  "  The  Re- 
ligion of  Jesus,"  "The  Policy  of  Jesus,"  "Crucifixion,"  "Paul  of 
Tarsus,"  "  Great  Synofl,"  "  Sanhedrin,"  "  Apocrypha,"  is  in  many 
points  original,  brilliant,  and  ingenious.  The  practicable  division  and 
subdivision  of  the  work  in  chapters  and  paragraj)hs,  i-ecommends  it 
particularly  to  students  of  theological  seminaries,  Jewish  and  Cliri<- 
tian.  We  can  not  agree  with  the  author  in  many  points,  particularly 
in  his  own  views  on   the  "  Pharisees  and  Sadducees,"  and  hope  that 


HISTORIANS   OF   JUDAISM.  22!) 

his  investigatious  will  ultimately  lead  liini  to  fiiU  in  line  with  the 
vast  and  increasing  galaxy  of  theological  scholars  who  accepted 
Oeiger's  theory  on  the  subject. 

The  first,  which  means  the  fourth  volume,  of  Graetz's  "  history" 
was  translated  by  Rev.  James  Gutheim  (New  York,  1873),  under  the 
mispices  of  the  American  Publication  Society,  now  defunct.'  "Emi- 
nent Israelites  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  "  is  the  title  of  a  book  pub- 
lished in  Philadelphia  (1880,  Edward  Stern),  by  Henry  S.  Morais. 
The  book  contains  one  hundred  short  sketches  of  Jewish  men  and 
women,  and  is  in  spite  of  errors  quite  instructive  for  Sunday-school 
pupils,  and  the  great  mass  of  people,  who  are  ignorant  of  modern 
Jewish  history.  The  author  attempted  to  appear  impartial  and  un- 
biased. My  "  Reform  Judaism  and  its  Pioneer§,"  which  was  pub- 
lished last  year,  is  what  it  claims  to  be,  simply  a  contribution  to  the 
history  of  Reform  Judaism,  and  as  such  it  certainly  fills  a  long-felt 
want  considering  the  fact  that  very  little  was  written  on  this  subject, 
and  this  little  in  a  spirit  far  from  doing  justice  to  the  men  whose 
biographies  I  have  given.  Some  critics  who  were  shocked  at  ray  strong 
criticism  of  their  idol,  Graetz,  found  fault  with  n)y  work,  because  I 
did  not  treat  Reform  Judaism  in  America.  They  have  no  doubt  over- 
looked the  paragraph  in  the  preface  to  my  book,  where  I  plainly 
stated:  "  The  following  chapters  are  an  earnest  attempt  to  set  aright 
before  the  people  the  men  who  were  partly  slandered,  partly  ignored 
or  belittled  by  Graetz." 

Should  God  grant  me  health  I  shall  publish  a  complete  "  His- 
tory of  the  Jewish  Reform-movement  to  the  Present  Day."  Aside 
from  this,  to  write  a  "  History  of  Reform-Judaism  in  America"  is  too 
premature  for  the  present,  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the  most  active 
men  and  conspicuous  figures  in  this  still  waging  battle  for  Reform  are 
still  living  and  laboring  in  the  good  cause. 

May  they  live  long,  and  continue  to  make  history  I 

^  The  present  publication  society  published  "  Outlines  of  Jewish  Ilis- 
toiy,"  by  Lady  Magnus,  and  two  volumes  of  Graetz's  history  in  EngUsh 
translation.     Botli  works  are  reprints  from  England. 


2oO  HISTORY. 


ORTHODOX  OR  HISTORICAL  JUDAISM. 

BY  REV.  DR.  H.  PEREIRA  MENDES. 


Our  history  may  be  divided  into  three  eras — the  biblical ;  the  era 
from  the  close  of  the  Bible  record  to  the  present  day ;  the  future. 
The  first  is  the  era  of  the  auuouncement  of  those  ideals  which  are  es- 
sential for  mankind's  happiness  and  progress.  The  Bible  contains  for 
us  and  for  humanity  all  ideals  worthy  of  human  effort  to  attain.  1 
make  no  exception.  The  attitude  of  historical  Judaism  is  to  hold  up 
these  ideals  for  mankind's  inspiration  and  for  all  men  to  pattern  life 
accordingly. 

The  first  divine  message  to  Abraham  contains  the  ideal  of  right- 
eous Altruism — "Be  a  source  of  blessing."  And  in  the  message 
announcing  the  Covenant  is  the  ideal  of  righteous  egotism.  "  Walk 
before  Me  and  be  perfect."  "  Recognize  me,  God,  be  a  blessing  to  thy 
fellow-man,  be  perfect  thyself."  Could  religion  ever  be  more  strikingly 
summed  ud? 

The  life  of  Abraham,  as  we  have  it  recorded,  is  a  logical  response, 
despite  any  human  feeling.  Thus  he  refused  booty  he  had  captured. 
It  was  an  ideal  of  warfare  not  yet  realized — that  to  the  victor  the 
spoils  did  not  necessarily  belong.  Childless  and  old,  he  believed  God's 
promise  that  his  descendants  should  be  numerous  as  the  stars.  It  was 
an  ideal  faith,  that  also  and  more,  was  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  Isaac — 
a  sacrifice  ordered  to  make  more  public  his  God's  condemnation  of 
Canaan ite  child-sacrifice.  It  revealed  an  ideal  God  who  would  not 
allow  religion  to  cloak  outrage  upon  holy  sentiments  of  humanity. 

IDEALS   IMPARTED   TO   MOSES. 

To  Moses  next  were  high  ideals  imparted  for  mankind  to  aim  at. 
On  the  very  threshold  of  his  mission  the  ideal  of  "the  Fatherhood  of 
God"  was  announced — "Israel  is  my  son,  my  first  born,"  implying 
that  other  nations  are  also  his  children.  Then  at  Sinai  were  given 
those  ten  ideals  of  human  conduct,  which,  called  the  "ten  command- 
ments," receive  the  allegiance  of  the  great  nations  of  to-day.  Mag- 
nificent ideals!  Yes,  but  not  so  magnificent  as  the  three  ideals  of 
God  revealed  lo  him— God  is  mercy,  God  is  love,  God  is  holiness. 


ORTHODOX    OR   HISTORICAL  JUDAISM.  231 

"  The  Lord  thy  God  loveth  thee."  The  echoes  of  this  are  the 
coinmands  to  the  Hebrews  and  to  the  world,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  iieart,  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy 
might."  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "  Thou  shalt 
not  hate  thy  brother  in  thy  heart ;  ye  shall  love  the  stranger."  God 
is  holiness  !  "  Be  holy  !  for  I  am  holy  ;"  "it  is  God  calling  toman 
to  participate  in  His  divine  nature." 

To  the  essayist  on  Moses  belongs  the  setting  forth  of  other  ideals 
associated  with  him.  The  historian  may  dwell  upon  his  "  proclaim 
freedom  throughout  the  land  to  its  inhabitants."  It  is  written  on  Bos- 
ton's Liberty  Bell,  which  announced  "Free  America."  The  poli- 
tician may  ponder  upon  his  land  tenure  system,  his  declaration  that 
the  poor  have  rights;  his  limitation  of  priestly  wealth  ;  his  separation 
of  church  and  state.  The  preacher  may  dilate  upon  that  Mosaic 
ideal,  so  bright  with  hope  and  faith — wings  of  the  human  soul  as  it 
flies  forth  to  find  God — -that  God  is  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh  ; 
it  is  a  flashlight  of  immortality  upon  the  storm-tossed  waters  (jf  human 
life.  The  physician  may  elaborate  his  dietary  and  health  laws,  de- 
signed to  prolong  life  and  render  man  more  able  to  do  his  duty  to 
society. 

MOSAIC    CODE    OF    KTIIICS. 

The  moralist  may  point  to  the  ideal  of  personal  responsibility  ; 
not  even  a  Moses  can  offer  himself  to  die  to  save  sinners.  The  ex- 
ponent of  natural  law  in  the  spiritual  world  is  anticipated  by  his  "  Not 
by  bread  alone  does  man  live,  but  by  obedience  to  divine  law."  The 
lecturer  on  ethics  may  enlarge  upon  moral  impulses,  their  co-relation, 
free  will,  and  such  like  ideas;  it  is  Moses  who  teaches  that  the  quickening 
cause  of  all  is  God's  revelation,  "Our  wisdom  and  our  understanding," 
and  who  sets  before  us  "Life  and  death,  blessing  and  blighting,"  to 
choose  either,  though  he  advises  "  choose  the  life."  Tenderness  to 
brute  creation,  equality  of  aliens,  kindness  to  servants,  justice  to  the 
employed  ;  what  code  of  ethics  has  brighter  gems  of  ideal  than  those 
which  make  glorious  the  law  (^f  Moses? 

As  for  our  other  prophets,  we  can  only  glance  at  their  ideals  of 
purity  in  social  life,  in  business  life,  in  personal  life,  in  political  life, 
and  in  religious  life.  We  need  no  Brvce  to  tell  us  how  much  or 
how  little  they  obtain  in  our  commonwealth  to-day.  So,  also,  if  we 
only  mention  the  ideal  relation  which  they  hold  up  for  ruler  and  the 
people,  and  the  former  "  should  be  the  servants  to  the  latter,"  it  is 
only  in  view  of  the  tremendous  results  in  history. 

For  these  very  words  license  the  English  revolution.  From  that 
very  chapter  of  the   Bible,  the  cry,  "To  your  tents,  0   Israel,"  was 


232  HISTORY. 

taken  by  the  puritans,  who  fought  with  the  Bible  in  one  hand.  Child 
of  that  English  revolt,  which  soon  consummated  English  liberty, 
America  was  born — herself  the  parent  of  the  French  revolution,  which 
has  made  so  many  kings  the  servants  of  their  peoples.  English  lib- 
erty, America's  birth,  French  revolution  !  Three  tremendous  results 
truly  !  Let  us,  however,  set  these  aside,  great  as  they  are,  and  mark 
those  grand  ideals  which  our  prophets  were  the  first  to  preach. 

PEACE,    BROTHERHOOD,    HAPPINESS. 

1.  Universal  peace,  or  settlement  of  national  disputes  by  arbitra- 
tion. When  Micah  and  Isaiah  announced  this  ideal  of  universal 
peace,  it  was  the  age  of  war,  of  despotism.  They  may  have  been  re- 
garded as  lunatics.  Now  all  true  men  desire  it,  all  good  men  pray 
for  it,  and  bright  among  fhe  jewels  of  Chicago's  coronet  this  year  is 
her  universal  peace  convention. 

2.  Universal  brotherhood.  If  Israel  is  God's  first  born  and  other 
nations  are  therefore  His  children,  Malachi's  "Have  we  not  all  one 
Father?"  does  not  surprise  us.  The  ideal  is  recognized  to-day.  It  is 
prayed  for  by  the  Catholics,  by  the  Protestants,  by  Hebrews,  by  all 
men. 

8.  The  universal  happiness.  This  is  the  greatest.  For  the  ideal 
of  universal  happiness  includes  both  universal  peace  and  universal 
brotherhood.  It  adds  being  at  peace  with  God,  for  without  that  hap- 
piness is  impossible.  Hence  the  prophet's  bright  ideal  that  one  day 
"All  shall  know  the  Lord  from  the  greatest  to  the  least."  "Earth 
shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover  the 
sea,"  and  "All  nations  shall  come  and  bow  down  before  God  and 
honor  His  name." 

Add  to  those  prophet  ideals  those  of  our  Kelubim.  The  "seek 
wisdom"  of  Solomon,  of  which  the  "Know  thyself"  of  Socrates  is 
but  a  partial  echo;  Job's  "Let  not  the  finite  creature  attempt  to 
fathom  the  infinite  Creator;"  David's  reachings  after  God  !  And  then 
let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  these  and  all  ideals  of  the  Bible  era 
are  but  a  prelude  and  overture.  How  grand  then  must  be  the  music 
of  the  next  era,  which  now  claims  our  attention. 

The  era  from  Bible  days  to  these  is  the  era  of  the  formation  of 
religious  and  philosophic  .systems  throughout  the  Orient  and  the  classic 
world.  What  grand  harmonies,  but  what  crashing  discords  sound 
through  these  ages.  Melting  and  swelling  in  mighty  diapason  they 
come  to  us  to-day  as  the  music  which  once  swayed  men's  souls,  now 
lifting  them  with  holy  emotion,  now  rocking,  now  soothing,  now  ex- 
citing.    For  those  religions,  those  philosophies  were  mighty  plectra  in 


ORTHODOX    OR   HISTORICAL   JUDAISM.  2.'{:} 

their  day  to  wake  the  human  heartstrings.  Above  them  all  rang  the 
voice  of  historical  Jndaism,  clear  and  lasting,  while  other  sounds 
blend  or  were  lost.  Sometimes  the  voice  was  in  harmony  ;  most  often 
it  was  discordant  as  it  clashed  with  the  dominant  note  of  the  day.  For 
it  sometimes  met  sweet  and  elevating  strains  of  morality,  of  beauty,  but 
more  often  it  met  the  debasing  sounds  of  immorality  and  error. 

JUDAISM   AND   ZOROASTRIANISM. 

Thus  Kueuen  speaks  of  "  the  affinity  of  Judaism  and  Zoroastrian- 
ism  in  Persia  to  the  affinity  of  a  common  atmosphere  of  lofty  truth, 
of  a  simultaneous  sympathy  in  their  view  of  earthly  and  heavenly 
tilings."  If  Max  Muller  declares  Zoroastrianism  originally  was  mono- 
theistic, so  far  historic  Judaism  could  harmonize.  But  it  would  raise 
a  voice  of  protest  when  Zoroastrianism  became  a  dualism  of  Ormuzd, 
light  or  good,  and  Ahriman,  dark  or  evil.  Hence  the  anticipatory 
protest  proclaimed  by  Isaiah  in  God's  very  message  to  Cyrus,  King  of 
Persia,  "  I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is  none  else."  "  I  formed  the  light 
and  create  darkness."  "I  make  peace  and  create  evil."  "I  am  the 
Lord,  and  there  is  none  else  ;"  that  is,  I  do  these  things,  not  Ormuzd 
or  Ahriman. 

Interesting  as  would  be  a  consideration  of  the  mutual  debt  be- 
tween Judaism  and  Zoroastrianism,  with  the  borrowed  angelology  and 
demouology  of  the  former  compared  with  the  "  ahmiyat  ahmi  Mazdan 
auraa"  of  the  latter  manifestly  borrowed  from  the  "  I  am  that  I  am" 
of  the  former,  we  can  not  pause  here  for  it. 

Similarly,  historical  Judaism  would  harmonize  with  Confucius' 
instance  of  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being,  filial  duty,  his  famous  "What 
you  would  not  like  when  done  to  you,  do  you  not  unto  others,"  and  of 
the  Buddhistic  teachings  of  universal  peace.  But  against  what  is 
contrary  to  Bible  ideal  it  would  protest,  and  from  it,  it  would  hold 
separate. 

In  521,  B.  C,  Zoroastrianism  was  revived.  Confucius  was  then 
actually  living.  Gautama  Buddha  died  in  543.  Is  the  closeness  of 
the  dates  mere  chance?  The  Jews  had  long  been  in  Babylon.  As 
Gesenius  and  Movers  observe,  there  was  traffic  of  merchants  between 
China  and  India,  via  Babylonia  with  Plioenicia,  and  not  unworthy  of 
mark  is  Ernest  Renan's  observation  that  Babylon  had  long  been  a 
focus  of  Buddhism  and  that  Boudasy  was  a  Chaldean  sage.  If  future 
research  should  ever  reveal  an  influence  of  Jewish  tl.onght  on  these 
three  great  oriental  faiths,  all  originally  holding  beautiful  thoughts, 
however  later  ages  might  have  obscured  them,  would  it  not  be  j)artial 


234  HISTORY. 

fulfillment  of  the  prophecy,  as  far  as  concerns  the  orient,  "  that  Israel 
shall  blossom  into  bud  and  fill  the  face  of  the  earth  with  fruit?" 

SEPARATENESS   OF    HISTORICAL   JUDAISM. 

In  the  West  as  in  the  East,  historical  Judaisju  was  in  harmony 
with  any  ideals  of  classic  philosophy  which  echoed  those  of  the  Bible. 
It  protested  when  they  failed  to  do  so,  and  because  it  failed  most  often 
historical  Judaism  remained  separate. 

.  Thus,  as  Dr.  Drummond  remarks,  Socrates  was  "  in  a  certain 
sense  monotheistic,  and  in  distinction  from  the  other  gods  mentions 
Him  who  (irders  and  holds  together  the  entire  Kosmos,"  "in  whom 
are  all  things  beautiful -and  good,"  "who  from  the  beginning  makes 
men," — as  historical  Judaism  commends. 

Again,  Plato,  his  disciple,  tauglit  that  God  was  good  or  that  the 
planets  rose  from  the  reason  and  understanding  of  God.  Historical 
Judaism  is  in  accord  with  its  ideal  "God  is  good,"  so  oft  repeated  and 
its  thought  hymned  in  the  almost  identical  words,  "Good  are  the 
luminaries  which  our  God  created  :  He  formed  them  with  knowledge, 
understanding  and  skill."  But  when  Plato  condemns  studies  except 
as  mental  training  and  desires  no  practical  results,  when  he  even 
rebukes  Arytas  for  inventing  machines  on  mathematical  principles, 
declaring  it  was  worthy  only  of  carpenters  and  wheelwrights,  and 
when  his  master,  Socrates,  says  to  Glaucon,  "  It  amuses  me  to  see  how 
afraid  you  are  lest  the  common  herd  accuse  you  of  recommending  use- 
less studies" — the  useless  study  in  question  being  astronomy — histor- 
ical Judaism  is  opposed  and  protests.  For  it  holds  that  even  Bezaleel 
and  Oholiab  is  filled  with  the  spirit  of  God.  It  bids  us  study  astron- 
omy to  learn  of  God  thereby.  "Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high  and  see 
who  hath  created  these  things,  who  bringeth  out  their  host  by  num- 
ber. He  calleth  them  all  by  name,  by  tlie  greatness  of  his  might,  for 
be  is  strong  in  power;  not  one  f^iilelh."  Even  as  later  sages  prac- 
tically teach  the  dignity  of  labor  by  themselves  engaging  in  it.  And 
when  Macaulay  remarks  "  from  the  testimony  of  friends  as  well  as  of 
foes,  from  the  confessions  of  Epictetus  and  Seneca,  as  well  as  from  the 
sneers  of  Luciau  and  the  invectives  of  Juvenal,  it  is  plain  that  these 
teachers  of  virtue  had  all  the  vices  of  their  neighbors  with  the  addi- 
tional one  of  hypocrisy,"  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  relation  of  his- 
torical Judaism  to  these  with  its  ideals.      "  Be  perfect." 

WORSHIP   RATHER   THAN    DOUBT. 

Similarly  the  sophist  school  declared  "  there  is  no  truth,  no  virtue, 
no  justice,  no  blasphemy,  for  there  are  no  gods;  right  and  wrong  are 


ORTHODOX    OK    HISTORICAL   JUDAISM.  235 

conventional  terms."  The  sceptic  proclaimed,  "  we  have  no  criterion 
of  action  or  judgment ;  we  can  not  know  the  truth  of  any  tiling;  we 
assert  nothing."  Not  even  the  Epicurean  school  taught  pleasure's 
pursuit.  But  historical  Judaism  solemnly  protested.  What  are  those 
teachings  of  our  Pirke  Aboth,  but  protests,  formally  formulated  by 
our  relii^rions  heads?  Said  thev  :  "  The  Torah  is  the  criterion  of  con- 
duct.  Worship  instead  of  doubting.  Do  philanthropic  acts  instead 
of  seeking  only  pleasure.  Society's  safe-guards  are  Law,  Worsiiip, 
and  Philanthropy."  So  preached  Simon  Hatzadik.  "  Ijove  lahor," 
j)reached  Shemaia  to  the  votary  of  Epicurean  ease.  "  Procure 
thyself  an  instructor,"  was  Gamaliel's  advice  to  any  one  in  doubt. 
"The  practical  application,  not  the  theory,  is  the  essential,"  was  the 
cry  of  Simon  to  Platonist  or  Pyrrhic.  "  Deed  first,  then  creed." 
"  Yes,"  added  Abtalion,  "  deed  first,  then  creed  ;  never  greed."  "  Be 
not  like  servants  who  serve  their  master  for  price;  be  like  servants 
who  serve  without  thoAight  of  price — and  let  the  fear  of  God  l)e  upon 
you."  "Separation  and  protest"  was  tlius  the  cry  against  these 
thought  vagaries. 

Brilliant  instance  of  the  policy  of  separation  and  protest  was 
the  glorious  Maccabean  effoit  to  combat  Hellenist  philosophy. 

If  but  for  Charles  Martel  and  Poictiers,  Europe  would  long  have 
been  Mohammedan,  then  but  for  Judas  Maccabeus  and  Bethoroii  or 
Eramaus,  Judaism  would  have  been  strangled.  But  no  .Judaism,  no 
Christianity.  Take  either  faith  out  of  the  world  and  what  would  our 
civilization  be?  Christianity  was  born — originally  and  as  designed 
aud  declared  by  its  founder  not  to  change  or  alter  one  tittle  of  the  law 
of  Moses.  If  the  Nazarene  teacher  claimed  tacitly  or  not  the  title 
"Son  of  God  "in  any  sense  save  that  which  Moses  meant  when  he 
said,  "Ye  are  children  of  your  God,"  can  we  wonder  that  there  was  a 
Hebrew  protest? 

.JUDAISM   JOINED    NO    HERESIES. 

Historical  Judaism  soon  found  cause  to  be  separate  and  to  pro- 
test. For  sect,  upon  sect  arose — Ebiouites,  Gentile  Christians,  Jew- 
ish Christians,  Nazarenes,  Gnostic  Christians,  Masboteans,  Basilidians, 
Valentiniaus,  Corpocratians,  Marcionties,  Balaamites,  Nicolaites,  Em- 
kratites,  Cainites,  Ophites  or  Nahasites;  evangels  of  these  and  others 
were  multiplied,  new  [)rophets  were  named,  such  as  Paschor,  Barker, 
Barkoph,  Asmagil,  Abraxos,  etc.  At  last  the  Christianity  of  Paul 
rose  supreme,  but  doctrines  were  found  to  be  engrafted  which  not 
only  caused  the  iamous  Christian  heresies  of  Pelagius,  Nestorius,  Eu- 
tyches,  etc.,  but  obligated  historical  Judaism   to  maintain   its  attitude 


286  HrsTORY. 

of  separation  and  protest.  For  its  Bii)le  ideals  were  invaded.  It 
could  not  join  all  the  sects  and  all  the  heresies.     So  it  joined  none. 

Presently  the  Crescent  of  Islam  rose.  From  Bagdad  to  Granada 
Hebrews  prepared  protests  which  the  Christians  carried  to  ferment  in 
their, distant  homes.  For  tlirough  the  Arabs  and  the  Jews  the  old 
classics  were  revived  and  experimental  science  was  fostered.  The  mis- 
use of  tlie  former  made  the  methods  of  the  Academicians  the  meth- 
ods of  the  Scholastic  Fathers;  but  it  made  Aristotelian  philosophy 
dominant.  Experiment  widened  men's  views.  The  sentiment  of  pro- 
test was  imbibed  — sentiment  against  scholastic  argument,  against  bid- 
ding research  for  practical  ends,  against  the  supposition  "that  syl- 
logistic reasoning  co.uld  ever  conduct  men  to  the  discovery  of  any  new 
principle,"  or  that  such  discoveries  could  be  made  except  by  induction, 
as  Aristotle  held  against  the  official  denial  of  ascertained  truth,  as, 
for  example,  earth's  rotundity.  This  protest  sentiment  in  time  pro- 
duced the  Reformation.  Later  it  gave  wonderful  impulses  to  thought 
and  effort,  which  has  substituted  modern  civilization,  with  its  glorious 
conquests,  for  medieval  semi-darkness. 

Here  the  era  of  the  past  is  becoming  the  era  of  the  present. 
Still  historical  Judaism  maintained  its  attitude. 

FRUITS,    NOT    FOLIAGE. 

As  the  new  philosophies  were  born,  it  said,  with  Bacon,  "  Let  us 
liave  fruits,  practical  results,  not  foliage  or  mere  words."  But  it  o[)- 
posed  a  Voltaire  and  a  Paine  when  they  made  their  ribald  attacks.  It 
could  not  praise  the  success  of  a  Newton  as  he  "crowned  the  long 
labors  of  the  astronomers  and  physicists  by  co-ordinating  the  phenomena 
of  solar  motion  throughout  the  visible  universe  into  one  vast  system." 
So  it  could  only  cry  "Amen  "  to  a  Kepler  and  a  Galileo.  Fordid  tliey 
not  all  prove  the  unsuspected  magnificence  of  the  Hebrew's  God,  who 
made  and  who  ruled  the  heavens  and  Heaven  of  heavens,  and  who 
presides  over  the  circuit  of  the  earth,  as  Isaiah  tells  us?  So  he  cried 
"  Amen  "  to  a  Dal  ton,  to  a  Linens;  for  the  "atomic  notation  of  the 
former  was  as  serviceable  to  chemistry  as  the  binominal  nomenclature 
and  the  classificatory  schematism  of  the  latter  were  to  zoology  and 
botany."  What  else  could  historic  Judaism  cry  when  tlie  first  message 
to  man  was  to  subdue  earth,  capture  its  powers,  harness  them,  work? 
True  historical  Judaism  means  progress. 

A  word  more  as  to  the  attitude  of  historic  Judaism  to  modern 
thought.  If  Hegel's  last  work  was  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  proofs 
of  the  existence  of  God;  if  in  his  lectures  on  religion  he  turned  his 
weapon  against  the  rationalistic  schools  which    reduced  religion  to  the 


ORTHODOX   OR   IHSTORICAL   JUDAISM.  237 

medium  CHnpatiblo  with  an  ordinary,  worldly  mind,  and  criticised  llie 
school  of  Schleierniacher,  who  elevated  feeling  to  a  place  in  religion 
ahove  systematic  theology,  we  agree  with  him.  But  when  he  gives 
successive  phases  of  religion  and  concludes  with  Christianity,  the  high- 
est, because  reconciliation  is  there  in  open  doctrine,  we  cry,  Do  justice 
also  to  the  Hebrew.  Is  not  the  Hebrew  ideal  God  a  God  of  Mercy, 
a  God  of  Reconciliation?  It  is  said,  "Not  forever  will  He  contend, 
neither  duth  He  retain  His  anger  forever."  That  is.  He  will  bo  recon- 
ciled. 

We  agree  with  much  of  Conipte,  and  with  him  elevate  woman- 
hood, but  we  do  not,  can  not,  exclude  woman  as  he  does,  from  public 
acticni ;  for,  besides  the  teachings  of  reverence  and  honor  for  mother- 
hood ;  beside  the  Bible  tribute  to  wifehood  "  that  a  good  wife  is  a  gift 
of  God  ;"  besides  the  grand  tribute  to  womanhood  offered  in  the  last 
chapter  of  Proverbs,  we  produce  a  Deborah  or  woman-president,  a 
Huldah  as  worthy  to  give  a  Divine  message. 

If  Darwin  and  the  disciples  of  evolution  proclaim  their  theory, 
the  Hebrew  points  to  Genesis  ii,  3,  where  it-  speaks  of  what  God  has 
created  "  to  make,"  infinitive  mood,  not  "  made  "  as  erroneously  trans- 
lated. But  historic  Judaism  protests  when  any  source  of  life  is  indi- 
cated, save  in  the  breath  of  God  alone. 

JUDAISM    ALWAYS   LOOKS   TO    GOD. 

We  march  in  the  van  of  progress,  but  our  hand  is  always  raised, 
pointing  to  God.  This  is  the  attitude  of  historical  Judaism.  And 
now  to  sum  up.     For  the  future  opens  to  us — 

1.  The  "separatist"  thought.  Genesis  tells  us  how  Abraham 
obeyed  it.  Exodus  illustrates  it.  We  are  "separated  from  all  the 
people  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  Leviticus  proclaims  it,  "I  have 
separated  you  from  the  peoples."  "  I  have  severed  you  fi'om  the  peo- 
ples." Numbers  illustrates  it,  "  Behold,  the  people  shall  dwell  alone." 
And  Deuteronomy  declares  it,  "He  hath  avouched  thee  to  be  His 
special  people." 

The  thought  began  as  our  nation  ;  it  grew  as  it  grew.  To  test 
its  wisdom,  let  us  ask  who  have  survived  ?  The  7,000  separatists  who 
did  not  bend  to  Baal  or  those  who  did?  Those  who  thronged  Baby- 
lonian schools  at  Pumbeditha  or  Nahardea,  or  those  who  succumbed  to 
Magian  influence?  The  Maccabees  who  fought  to  separate,  or  the 
Hellenists,  who  aped  Greek  or  the  Sectarians  of  their  day  ?  The  Bne 
Yisrael  remnant  recently  discovered  in  India,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Anglo-English   Association,   the  discovery  of  Theaou-Kiu-Keaou,   or 


238  HISTORY. 

"  people-\vh()-cut-()iit-the-sine\v,"  in  China,  point  in  this  direction  of 
separation  as  a  necessity  for  existence. 

And  who  are  the  Hebrews  of  to-day  here  and  in  Europe,  the  de- 
scendants of  those  who  preferred  to  keep  separate,  and  therefore  chose 
exile  or  death,  or  those  who  yielded  and  were  baptized?  The  course 
for  historic  Judaism  is  clear.     It  is  to  keep  separate. 

2.  The  protest  thought.  We  must  continue  to  protest  against  so- 
cial, religious,  or  political  error  with  the  eloquence  of  reason.  Never 
by  the  force  of  violence.  No  error  is  too  insignificant,  none  can  be 
too  stupendous  for  us  to  notice.  The  cruelty  which  shoots  the  inno- 
cent doves  for  sport — the  crime  of  duelists  who  risk  life  which  is  not 
theirs  to  risk — for  it  belongs  to  country,  wife,  or  mother,  to  child 
or  to  society;  the  militarianism  of  modern  nations,  the  transformation 
of  patriotism,  politics,  or  service  of  one's  country  into  a  business  for 
personal  profit,  until  these  and  all  wrongs  be  rectified,  we  Hebrews 
must  keep  separate,  and  we  must  protest, 

CONTINUE    SEPARATE    AND   PROTESTING. 

And  keep  separate  and  protest  we  will,  until  all  error  shall  be 
cast  to  the  moles  and  bats.  We  are  told  that  Europe's  armies  amount 
to  22,000,000  of  men.  Imagine  it!  Are  we  not  right  to  protest  that 
arbitration  and  not  the  rule  of  miglit  should  decide?  Yet,  let  me  not 
cite  instances  which  render  protest  necessary.  "Time  would  fail,  and 
tlie  tale  would  not  be  told,"  to  quote  a  Rabbi. 

How  far  separation  and  protest  constitute  our  historical  Jewish 
policy  is  evident  from  what  I  have  said.  Apart  from  this,  socially, 
we  unite  whole-heartedly  and  witliout  reservation  wtth  our  non-Jewish 
fellow-citizens  ;  we  recognize  no  difference  between  Hebrew  and  non- 
Hebrew. 

We  declare  that  the  attitude  of  Historical  Judaism,  and,  for  that 
matter,  of  the  Reform  School  also,  is  to  serve  our  country  as  good  cit- 
izens, to  be  on  the  side  of  law  and  order,  and  fight  anarchy.  We  are 
bound  to  forward  every  humanitarian  movement;  where  want  or  pain 
calls  there  must  we  answer ;  and  condemned  by  all  true  men  be  the 
Jew  who  refuses  aid  because  he  who  needs  it  is  not  a  Jew.  In  the  in- 
tricacies of  science,  in  the  pursuit  of  all  that  widens  human  knowl- 
edge, in  the  path  of  all  that  benefits  humanity,  the  Jew  must  walk 
abreast  with  noii-Jew,  except  he  pass  him  in  generous  rivalry.  With 
the  non-Jew  we  must  press  onward,  but  for  all  men  and  for  ourselves 
we  must  ever  point  u})war(l  to  the  Common  Father  of  all.  Marching 
forward,  as  I  have  said,  l)iit  i)ointing  upward,  this  is  the  attitude  of 
Histfjrical  Judaism. 


ORTHODOX    OK    IIISTOIilCAL   JUDAISM.  239 

Religiously  the  attitude  of  Historical  Judaism  is  expressed  in  the 
Creeds  formulated  by  jNIaimonides,  as  follows: 

"  We  believe  iu  God  the  Creator  of  all,  a  unity,  a  Spirit  who 
never  assumed  corporeal  form,  Eternal,  and  He  alone  ought  to  be 
worshiped. 

"  We  unite  with  Christians  in  the  belief  that  Revelation  is  in- 
spired. We  unite  witli  the  founder  of  Christianity  that  not  one  jot 
or  tittle  of  the  Law  should  be  changed.  Hence  we  do  not  accept  a 
First  Day  Sabbath,  etc. 

"  We  unite  in  believing  that  God  is  omniscient  and  just,  good, 
loving,  and  merciful. 

"  We  unite  in  the  belief  in  a  coming  Messiah. 

"  We  unite  in  our  belief  in  immortality.  In  these,  Judaism 
and  Christianity  agree." 

DEVELOPMENT    OF   JUDAISM. 

As  for  the  development  of  Judaism,  we  believe  in  change  of  re- 
ligions custom  or  idea  only  when  effected  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  God's  law  and  the  highest  authority  attainable.  But  no  change 
without.  Hence  we  can  not,  and  may  not,  recognize  the  authority  of 
any  conference  of  Jewish  Rabbis  or  ministers,  unless  those  attending 
are  formally  empowered  by  their  communities  or  congregations  to 
represent  tliem.  Needless  to  add,  they  must  be  sufficiently  versed  in 
Hebrew  law  and  lore;  they  must  live  lives  consistent  with  Bible  teach- 
ings and  they  must  be  advanced  in  age  so  as  not  to  be  immature  in 
thought. 

And  we  believe,  heart,  soul  and  might,  in  the  restoration  to  Pales- 
tine, a  Hebrew  state,  from  the  Nile  to  the  Euphrates — even  though, 
as  Isaiah  intimates  in  his  very  song  of  restoration,  some  Hebrews  re- 
main among  the  Gentiles. 

We  believe  in  the  future  establishment  of  a  Court  of  Arbitration, 
above  suspicion,  for  a  settlement  of  nations' disputes,  such  as  could 
well  be  in  the  shadow  of  that  temple  which  we  believe  shall  one  day 
arise  to  be  a  "house  of  prayer  for  all  peoples,"  united  at  last  in  the 
service  of  one  Father.  How  far  the  restoration  will  solve  present 
pressing  Jewish  problems,  how  far  such  spiritual  organization  will 
guarantee  man  against  falling  into  error,  we  can  not  here  discuss. 
What  if  doctrines,  aims,  and  customs  separate  us  now  ? 

There  is  a  legend  that  when  Adam  and  Eve  were  turned  out  of 
Eden  or  eartlily  Paradise,  an  angel  smashed  the  gates,  and  the  frag- 


240  HISTORY. 

ments  flying  all  over  the  earth  are  the  precious  stones.     We  cau  carry 
the  legend  further. 

FAITH    SET   IN    THE   GATES. 

The  precious  stones  were  picked  up  by  the  various  religious  aud 
philosophers  of  the  world.  Each  claimed  aud  claims  that  its  own  frag- 
ment aloue  reflects  the  light  of  heaveu,  forgetting  the  settings  and  in- 
crustations which  time  has  added.  Patience,  my  brothers.  In  God's 
own  time  we  shall,  all  of  us,  fit  our  fragments  together  and  reconstruct 
the  Gates  of  Paradise.  There  will  be  an  era  of  reconciliation  of  all 
livintr  faiths  and  systems,  the  era  of  all  being  in  at-one-ment,  or  atone- 
ment  with  God.  Through  the  gates  shall  all  people  pass  to  the  foot  of 
God's  throne.  The  throne  is  called  by  us  tiie  mercy-seat.  Name  of 
happy  augury,  for  God's  Mercy  shall  wipe  out  all  record  of  mankind's 
errors  and  strayings,  the  sad  story  of- our  unbrotherly  actions.  Then 
shall  we  better  know  God's  ways  and  behold  His  glory  more  clearly,  as 
it  is  written,  "  They  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the 
greatest  of  them,  saith  the  Lord,  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity  and 
I  will  remember  their  sins  no  more"  (Jer.  xxxi,  34.) 

What  if  the  deathless  Jew  be  joresent  then  among  the  earth's 
peoples?  Would  ye  begrudge  his  presence?  His  work  in  the  world, 
the  Bible  he  gave  it,  shall  plead  for  him.  And  Israel,  God's  first-born, 
who,  as  his  prophets  foretold,  Avas  for  centuries  despised  and  rejected 
of  men,  knowing  sorrows,  acquainted  with  grief  and  esteemed  stricken 
by  God  for  his  own  backslidings,  wounded  beside  through  others'' 
transgressions,  bruised  through  others'  injuries,  shall  be  but  fullilling 
his  destiny  to  lead  back  his  brothers  to  the  Father.  For  that  we  were 
chosen  ;  for  that  we  are  God's  servants  or  ministers.  Yes,  the  atti- 
tude of  Historical  Judaism  to  the  world  will  be  in  the  future,  as  in 
the  past — helping  mankind  with  His  Bible — until  the  gates  of  earthly 
Paradise  shall  be  reconstructed  by  mankind's  joint  efforts,  and  all  na- 
tions whom  Tliou,  God,  hast  made  shall  go  through  and  worship  be- 
fore Thee,  O  Lord,  aud  shall  glorify  Thy  name! 


THE    POSITION    OF    WOMAN    AMONG    TIIK   JEWS.  241 


THE  POSITlOiN  OF  WOMAN  AMONG  THE  JEWS. 

By  dr.  max  LANDSBERG. 


The  scope  of  the  subject  assigned  to  me  is  so  wide,  it  extends 
over  so  long  a  period  of  time,  and  covers  so  large  a  territory  that  only 
a  sketch  can  be  attempted  in  a  paper  destined  to  be  read  at  a  gather- 
ing where  but  very  limited  time  can  be  given  to  each  of  the  many 
subjects  engaging  the  interest. 

The  consideration  of  Woman's  position  among  the  Jews  must  nat- 
urally be  divided  into  three  parts  coincident  with  the  three  great 
periods  of  Jewish  history. 

Tlie  first  period  embraces  the  biblical  time  down  to  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  nationality  by  the  Romans. 

The  second  period  includes  the  long  time  of  suffering  from  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem  to  the  removal  of  political  disabilities  of  the  Jews 
which  in  France  and  the  United  States  began  at  the  end  of  the  last 
century. 

The  third  marks  the  growing  intercourse  of  the  Jews  with  non- 
Jews  and  their  active  participation  in  the  social,  political,  and  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  nations  in  whose  midst  tiiey  live  and  of  which  they 
constitute  an  integral  part.  The  beginning  of  this  period  varies 
among  the  different  nationalities  according  to  the  time  of  the  removal 
of  political  disabilities,  from  the  last  years  of  the  last  century  to  the 
second  half  of  our  own,  and  is  continued  to  the  present  day.  In 
Russia  and  the  oriental  countries  the  third  period  has  not  yet  com- 
menced. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  status  of  woman  in  the  first 
period  is  most  universally  known,  since  the  biblical  wi'itings  are  open 
to  every  body,  and  hosts-  of  scholarly  and  popular  books  are  available 
on  the  subject.  Nothing  however  is  further  removed  from  the  truth  ; 
and  it  can  safely  be  asserted  that  little  or  nothing  is  known  about  the 
condition  of  woman  among  the  ancient  Hebrews  before  the  eighth  or 
seventh  century,  B.  C,  except  what  can  be  inferred  from  occasional 
notices  in  which  historical  reminiscences  seem  to  be  })rGserved  with  ex- 
ceptional faithfulness. 

Those,  of  course,  who  still   measure   the   biblical   writings  by  a 
16 


242  HISTORY. 

different  standard  from  that  applied  to  all  other  productions  of  the 
human  mind,  and  suppose  that  they  were  produced  in  some  super- 
natural manner  and  revealed  to  those  who  were  yet  utterly  unjire- 
pared  to  understand  and  appreciate  them,  may  still  assert  that  from 
the  very  beojinning  an  ideal  relation  existed  between  man  and  woman 
among  the  Hebrews,  and  will  have  a  hard  task  to  reconcile  therewith 
the  traces  widely  scattered  of  a  condition  in  direct  conflict  with  this 
advanced  position. 

The  iude  and  barbarous  manners  found  here  and  there  in  historic 
accounts  and  especially  recognizable  in  the  ancient  legislation  are  in- 
deed evidences  of  the  reality,  while  the  beautiful  legend  of  the  crea- 
tion of  woman,  setting  forth  a  full  understanding  of  her  dignity  and 
of  the  sacreduess  of  matrimony — generally  represented  as  the  ex- 
clusive growth  of  modern  civilization — and  the  wonderful  descrip- 
tion? of  the  characters  of  women  in  the  Bible,  are  the  result  of  the 
teachings  of  the  prophets,  which  became  religious  and  moral  sentiment 
incarnated  in  the  Jewish  people. 

The  ancient  Hebrews  had  an  origin  and  a  beginning  not  by  any 
means  different  from  the  rest  of  humanity.  At  first  they  were  savage 
hordes  like  the  ancestors  of  all  other  nations ;  they  were  cultivated 
and  refined  by  a  long  development  and  a  slow  growth,  until  they  had 
reached  so  high  a  state  of  advancement  that  they  could  be  led  to 
suppose  themselves  to  have  commenced  their  career  on  the  height  of 
refinement  and  civilization. 

The  biblical  stories  do  not  give  evidence  of  the  condition  of  the 
people  at  the  time  which  they  attempt  to  describe,  but  reflect  the 
sentiments  and  the  culture  of  their  writers  who  represented  the  most 
advanced  religious  and  ethical  views  of  their  age.  So  it  is  true  even 
of  the  biblical  period,  what  a  distinguished  scholar  so  well  states  as 
a  general  truth  in  his  latest  work,  "  The  Jewish  religion  has  made 
the  Jew."  ' 

The  finest  flower  then  of  the  proj)hetic  religion  we  find  in  the 
position  assigned  to  woman  in  the  history  of  her  creation,  where  the 
perfection  of  matrimony  in  the  close  union  of  one  man  and  one  wife 
for  life  is  expressed  in  such  an  exalted  manner,  that  not  only  all 
conceptions  of  antiquity  are  put  in  the  shade,  but  that  the  highest 
civilization,  yet  attained,  can  not  conceive  of  a  more  sublime  ideal. 

"  God  said.  It  is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone,  I  will  make  him  a 
helpmate  suital)le  for  him,"  that  is  equal  to  him.     The  perfect  equality 

'C'est  le  Judaism,  qui  a  fait  le  juif.     A.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Israel  cbez 
les  nations,  p.  IS. 


THE   rOSITIOX    OF    WOMAN    AMONG   THE  JEWS.  243 

of  man  and  wife  is  here  taught,  which  is  still  further  impressed  by 
the  idea  that  woman  is  made  out  of  man  and  confirmed  by  man's  ex- 
clamation, "  This  is  bone  of  my  bones  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  ;  she  shall 
be  called  Isha"  (that  is  man  with  the  feminine  termination)  ;  man 
and  wife  supplement  each  other;  man  and  wife  are  one.  And  not 
satisfied  with  the  force  of  even  this  statement,  the  author  adds: 
"Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall 
cling  to  his  wife ;  and  they  shall  become  one  flesh."  ^ 

It  is  characteristic  for  the  condition  of  our  present  civilization  to 
note  how  often  this  last  wonderful  sentence  is  misquoted  by  reversing 
therein  the  position  of  man  and  wife.  To  my  knowledge,  sufficient 
stress  has  never  yet  been  laid  upon  the  significant  suggestion  of  the 
text,  which  does  not  say,  woman,  the  physically  weaker  one,  shall 
cling  .to  her  husband,  but  man,  the  physically  stronger  one,  shall  cling 
to  his  wife,  who  in  a  high  condition  of  humanity  is  morally  and  ethic- 
ally his  superior.  A  wealth  of  sentiment,  so  universally  ascribed 
exclusively  to  modern  ideas,  is  contained  in  this  ancient  Hebrew 
phrase.  It  indicates  the  glory  of  the  prophetic  thought,  it  furnishes 
the  keynote  for  the  exalted  position  of  woman  among  the  Jews,  so 
strangely  exceptional,  when  compared  to  that  of  all  the  ancient  and 
many  of  the  modern  nations. 

It  may  be  incidentally  remarked  that  this  high  ideal  was  ascribed 
not  to  the  supposed  ancestors  of  the  Israelites  alone,  but  set  up  as  the 
norm  for  all  humanity,  of  whom  Adam  and  Eve  were  represented  as 
the  common  father  and  mother. 

We  can  not  be  surprised  to  meet  with  a  much  lower  standard  in 
the  legislative  parts  of  the  Pentateuch  which  represent  the  real  con- 
dition of  a  much  earlier  time,  and  besides  practical  law  never  does 
readily  conform  with  the  ethical  lessons  of  the  most  advanced  teachers. 
But  even  here  the  ancient  Jews  need  not  blush  when  compared  with 
other  and  especially  with  contemporaneous  nations. 

While  the  father  had  a  right  to  sell  his  daughter  for  a  slave,  she 
was  protected  against  being  made  the  object  of  brutal  lust.  When 
she  had  born  a  child  or  when  she  was  given  to  the  son  of  the  house, 
she  became  thereby  a  free  woman  and  entered  upon  the  rights  of  the 
legal  wife.  Even  when  divorced,  care  was  taken  that  she  should  be 
amply  provided  for." 

The  abomination  of  prostitution  for  religious  purposes,  in 
vogue  among  all  oriental  nations,  was  branded  as  the  most  heinous 


crime. ^ 


^  Genesis  ii,  IS.  21-24.  ^  Exodus  xxi,  7-11.  ^  Lev.  xix,  29. 


244  HISTORY. 

The  youug  married  man  was  exempted  from  public  duties  for  a 
whole  year,  that  he  might  make  his  wife  happy/ 

The  duties  to  father  and  mother  were  perfectly  alike.  The 
women  were  not  excluded  from  the  society  of  men.  They  were  not 
confined  to  the  innermost  part  of  the  house  and  kept  there  in  utter 
ignorance  of  every  thing  except  their  household  duties,  but  freely  took 
part  in  all  that  concerned  their  husbands  and  fathers,  and  were  bene- 
fited by  the  education  and  training  gained  by  such  free  intercourse. 
Choruses  of  women  were  admitted  to  public  celebrations.  Evidence 
of  this  is  not  wanting.  Miriatn  is  reported  to  have  celebrated  the 
escape  from  pjgypt  at  the  head  of  a  host  of  women  with  music  and 
song;'''  David,  after  his  victory,  received  the  laurel  wreath  from  the 
maidens  of  his  people,'  and  religious  processions  were  conducted  by 
women.*  On  Sabbaths  and  New  Moons  they  appeared  at  the  pJaces 
of  Avorship  "  to  seek  God,"  and  went  to  the  schools  of  the  prophets  to 
listen  to  their  religious  instruction.^ 

Thus,  far  from  being  unconditionally  subject  to  man,  shut  up  in 
the  harem  and  protected  l>y  isolation,  they  could  move  freely  and 
unsuspected  among  men,  participate  in  public  affairs  and  were  not  ex- 
cluded from  the  highest  positions.  They  were  judges  and  prophets. 
One  of  the  oldest  songs  was  by  a  woman,'"'  and  one  of  the  finest  prayers 
on  record  was  placed  in  the  mouth  of  the  mother  of  Samuel.^ 

Upon  the  basis  of  the  practical  equality  between  man  and  wife 
grew  up  that  chastity,  coutinency  and  temperance  which  are  never 
promoted  by  legislation,  but  by  the  moral  self-government  of  man, 
brought  about  by  the  recognized  dignity  of  woman. 

It  is  significant  that  the  laws  against  sexual  excesses  make  no 
distinction  between  the  two  sexes.  To  how  high  a  degree  moral  senti- 
ment was  educated  is  shown  in  the  tradition  preserved  in  Judges  xix  to 
xxi.  The  outrage  committed  is  declared  unheard  of  "since  Israel  left 
Egypt,"  it  arouses  the  indignation  of  the  whole  people,  and  the  re- 
fusal to  surrender  the  guilty  ones  causes  a  war  whose  motives  remind 
us  of  the  expedition  against  Troy.  But  while  Paris  had  violated  the 
hospitality  of  a  mighty  chief  and  robbed  him  of  his  (pieeu,  the  men  of 
the  city  of  Benjamin  had  offended  a  common  and  unknown  wayfarer 
and  his  sj)Ouse  whose  honor  was  to  be  vindicated. 

This  high  S[)irit  of  honor  due  to  woman  is  evident  in  the  old  fam- 
ily legends  where  the  wife  is  by  no  means  the  slave  of  man.     Sarah, 

'  Deut.  xxiv,  5.  '^  Kx.  xv,  '10.  ^  I  Sam.  xviii,  (i.  7. 

*  Psabiis  ixviii,  20.  ^  II  Kin>rs  iv,  L'.'!.  *  Debora,  Judges  v. 

'  I  .Sam.  ii. 


THE   POSITION    OF    WOMAN    AMONCJ    TIIK   JKWS.  2-45 

Rehekkah,  Michal,'  Abigail,'  the  woman  ofShunein,'  were  all  the  niis- 
trei>ses  of  the  house  as  described  in  Proverbs  whicii  exhf)rt  man  to 
remain  true  to  the  wife  of  his  youth  and  find  satisfaction  in  her 
love  ;*  for  a  good  wife  is  the  crown  of  her  husband,'  a  gift  of  God  ;''  a 
virtuous  woman  more  valuable  than  pearls/  A  celebration  of  true  and 
faithful  love  as  we  have  it  in  the  Sou^  of  Songs  and  the  charming 
character  represented  in  that  beautiful  idyl  the  Book  of  Ruth  could  be 
])roduced  only  where  the  highest  ideals  of  woman's  nobility  were  con- 
ceived and  accepted. 

This  exceptional  position  of  woman  among  the  Israelites  stands 
out  in  high  relief  if  we  compare  it  with  her  status  amongst  the  most 
advanced  nations  of  antiquity,  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  where  the 
abominable  custom  was  tolerated  of  lending  the  wife  to  a  friend,  as  it 
was  done  even  by  a  Socrates,  a  Cato,  a  Cicero. 

Tlie  only  apparently  just  criticism  of  woman's  position  among  the 
Jews  is  the  absence  of  a  law  against  polygamy.  An  analogous  objection 
might  be  made  against  the  permission  of  slavery.  But  in  the  one  case 
as  in  the  other  legislation  was  powerless  to  abolish  these  abominable 
customs,  but  did  all  in  its  power  to  mitigate  and  to  check  them.® 

Better  even  than  the  laws,  the  old  family  legends  prove  that  mo- 
nogamy was  the  rule  and  polygamy  the  rare  exception,  indulged  in  only 
by  kings  and  powerful  chiefs.  Abraham,  after  having  resigned  every 
hope  of  posterity,  takes  Hagar  only  after  the  urgent  request  of  his  , 
wife.  Isaac  had  one  wife,  Jacob  intended  to  marry  Rachel  alone,  Jo- 
sei)h,  Moses,  Aaron,  lived  in  monogamy.  The  word  concubine  is  not 
even  mentioned  in  the  legislative  code,  it  was  a  foreign  Avord,**  which 
never  once  occurs  in  the  last  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch.  With 
what  disfavor  the  relation  is  regarded,  is  evident  from  the  very  old 
law,  quoted  bef  >re,"'  defining  the  father's  power  over  his  daughter  and 
the  master's  over  his  female  slave. 

C(mipare  with  these  humane  provisions,  at  least  twenty-six  centu- 
ries old,  the  following  account  given  on  the  present  condition  of  sim- 
lar  relations  among  a  people  so  far  advanced  as  the  Japanese,  upon  the 
development  of  whose  civilization,  however,  the  Jewish  religion  never 
had  the  slightest  influence  : 

1  II  Sam.  vi,  20.  ^  i  Sam.  xxv,  14,  ff.  ^  H  Kings,  iv,  8,  ti". 

*  Prov.  V.  18.  ^  Prov.  xii,  4.  '^  lb.  xix,  14. 

'  lb.  xxxi,  10.     See  also  xxxi,  11,  tf,  and  Ecclesiasticus  xxvi,  1-4. 
8Cf.  Deut.  xxi,  15-17. 

1"  Page  243;  Exod.  xxi.  7-11. 


246  HISTORY. 

"In  Japanese  households  the  coucubiue  or  mekake  occupies  a  po- 
sition similar  to  that  of  a  servant,  so  far  as  her  rights  are  con- 
cernetl.  The  wife  is  always  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and  looks  upon 
her  husband's  mekake  in  the  light  of  a  maid.  Should  the  concubine 
become  a  mother,  she  has  no  claim  upon  the  child,  who  belongs  to  her 
master  and  mistress,  and  who  is  taught  to  regard  them  only  as  his 
natural  parents.  Indeed,  most  frequently  the  mekake  is  employed  in  a 
family  for  the  sole  purpose  of  S3curing  an  heir ;  and  no  sooner  has  the 
child  been  born  and  weaned  than  the  concubine  is  discharged. 

"The  mekake  has  no  prerogatives  atjove  the  other  servants  of  the 
house,  and  is  subject  to  immediate  dismissal  whenever  the  master  of 
the  house  desires  it.  .  .  .  8he  is  simply  a  convenience,  and  has 
been  secured  ficm  some  employment  bureau,  just  as  any  other  serv- 
ant, and  receives  regular  wages.  .  .  .  Not  only  is  the  present 
emperor  himself  the  child  of  a  mekake,  but  so  also  is  the  present  heir- 
apparent  to  the  throne."  ^ 

All  the  pictures  of  domestic  felicity  in  the  later  poetry,  as  in 
Proverbs  so  often,  and  in  Psalms  cxxviii,  3,  point  evidently  at  one  only 
wife  ruling  in  the  house  as  queen.  Th'e  prophets  could  find  no  better 
illustratiou  to  bring  home  to  the  people  the  relation  of  God  to  them, 
than  tliat  of  marriage  with  the  wife  of  his  youth. ■^ 

While  therefore  no  general  law  existed  abolishing  polygamy,  long 
before  the  origin  of  Christianity  monogamy  among  the  Jews  was  the 
universally  established  custom.  There  is  no  indication  of  such  a  pro- 
vision in  the  New  Testament  nor  in  the  early  Church.  And  long 
after  monogamy  was  proclaimed  as  a  law  under  the  name  of  Kab. 
Gershom  ben  Jehuda,  at  the  8ynod  of  Worms,  in  1020,  Christian 
dignitaries,  and  even  Protestant  refoimers,  continued  to  regard  the 
polygamic  connections  of  Christian  princes  with  a  most  lenient  eye.' 

When  considering  the  wonderful  early  development  of  the  exalted 
position  of  woman  among  the  early  Jews,  we  appreciate  the  sentiment 
expressed  by  Heinrich  Heine  :  "  Judea  has  ever  appeared  to  me  like 
a  piece  of  Occident  lost  in  the  midst  of  the  Oriental  countries."*  The 
ingenious  poet  would  have  done  better  justice  to  Judea  had  he  ex- 
pressed his  wonderujcnt  that  the  finest  features  of  Occidental  ethics 

'  From  .Moral  Life  of  the  .Japani-se,  by  Dr.  W.  Delano  Eastlake,  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  July,  1893,  p.  344. 

'■^  Hosea  ii,  lG-22;  Is.  liv,  (l-S;  and  tlio  forceful  adhortation  to  conju- 
gal fidelity,  Mai.  ii,  13-16. 

•'  For  a  collection  of  evidences  see  die  l-'rau  der  Vergangenheit  in 
A.  Bebel,  die  Fran  mid  der  Socialisimis. 

MTestandnisse,  Siimmtl.  \Verke,  Vol.  14,  p.  .'ll.'i. 


THE   POSITION    OF    WOMAN    AMONG   TIIK   JEWS.  247 

and  morality  were  the  flower  aud  fruit  of  that  wliicli  Judaism  lias 
taught  huruauity. 

Beiug  so  often  repeated  it  is -generally  regarded  as  an  axiom  that 
the  Christian  religion  has  emancipated  woman  from  her  slavery  and 
delivered  her  from  her  suhordiuate  position.  Let  me  give  as  a  speci- 
men of  this  popular  idea  a  quotation  from  Dr.  Jolm  Lord  :  ^ 

"Only  Christianity,"  he  says,  "recognizes  what  is  most  truly  at- 
tractive aud  enuobliug  among  women."  "The  Jewish  women  seem  to 
have  heeu  more  favored  and  honored  thau  women  were  in  Greece  or 
Rome,  eveu  in  the  highest  periods  of  their  civilization.  But  in  Je\vi?h 
history  woman  was  the  coy  maiden,  or  the  vigilant  housekeeper,  or 
the  ambitious  mother,  or  the  intriguing  wife,  or  the  obedient  daughter, 
or  the  patriotic  songstress,  rather  than  the  sympathetic'  friend.  Tliough 
we  admire  the  beautiful  Rachel,  the  heroic  Deborah,  or  the  virtuous 
Abigail,  or  the  fortunate  Esther,  or  the  brave  Judith,  or  the  generous 
Shuuamite,  we  do  not  find  in  the  Rachels  and  Estliers  the  hallowed 
ministrations  of  the  Marys,  the  Marthas  and  the  Phcebes,  imtil 
Christianity  had  developed"  the  virtues  of  the  heart  and  kindled  the 
loftier  sentiments.  Then  woman  became  not  merely  the  gentle  nurse 
and  the  prudent  housewife  aud  the  disinterested  lover,  but  a  friend, 
an  angel  of  consolation,  the  equal  of  man  in  character,  and  his  supe- 
rior in  the  virtues  of  the  heart  aud  soul." 

How  unjust  this  assertion  is,  tlie  author  himself  might  have  known, 
had  he  but  remembered  that  the  Marys  and  the  Marthas  were  Jewish 
women,  horn  from  Jewish  parents,  grown  up  and  educated  solely  under 
Jewish  iufluence,  and  made,  what  they  were,  by  the  instrumentality 
of  the  Jewish  religion.  How  much  superior  the  conception  of  woman's 
place  was  among  the  Jewisli  Prophets  than  it  was  understood  by  the 
apostle  Paul  can  be  learned  from  I  Corinthians  vii,  I  Timothy  ii, 
11-14,  and  other  passages.  The  depreciation  of  marriage  became  in- 
deed the  rule  in  the  Christian  Church. 

Full  justice  to  the  Jews  in  this  respect  has  been  done  from  a  Cliris- 
tian  side  lately  by  Nahida  Remi,  in  her  book,  "The  Jewish  Woman,' 
where,  pages  18  to  32,  she  gives  a  full  collection  of  the  passages  from 
the  New  Testament  and  tb.e  early  fathers  of  the  Church,  showing  how 
they  regarded  woman  and  matrimony.  She  is  fair  enough  to  say, 
"  The  higher  fancy  is  strained  to  exalt  the  mother  of  Jesus,  the  more 
proud  the  Jews  can  be  to  see  the  gentle,  quiet  Mary  originate  fmm 
their  people." 

Far  from   attempting  to  deny  that  among  Christian  nations  the 

1  Beacon  Lights  of  History,  Vol.  5,  Great  Women,  pp.  58,  04  and  Go. 


248  HISTORY. 

ditjiiity  of  woman  has  been  elevated  and  tardy  justice  is  lieing  done 
to  lier,  we  are  entitled  to  assert  that  this  is  the  result  of  tliat  part  of 
Christianity  which  is  essentially  Jewish. 

In  the  long  period  which  succeeded  the  blotting  out  forever  of 
the  Jewish  nationality,  the  natural  development  of  Jewish  religion  and 
ethics  was  rudely  interrupted,  its  stream  led  into  a  new  channel  and 
exposed  to  a  great  variety  of  unfortunate  conditions.  Hated,  perse- 
cuted, and  tempest-tossed,  the  only  preventive  against  total  dissolution 
and  loss  of  identity  was  found  in  the  minute  elaboration  of  the  formal 
and  ceremonial  part  of  religion,  wiih  which  the  Jews  surrounded 
themselves  as  with  a  protecting  wall. 

The  Talmud,  representing  a  development  especially  in  Babylon 
under  oriental  influences,  became  the  power  ruling  supreme.  Rigid 
conservatism,  a  result  of  terrible  oppression  continued  through  cen- 
turies, furthered  isolation  and  preserved  existing  conditions  even  in 
occidental  countries.  W,  indeed,  Judea  had  seemed  like  a  piece  of 
Occident  in  the  midst  of  the  oriental  countries,  now  the  Jews  repre- 
sented (U-ientalism  in  the  midst  of  the  Occident.  Every  department 
of  life  was  so  influenced,  and  the  position  of  woman  was  materially 
altered.  Women  were  excluded  from  the  participation  in  all  those 
ceremonies  which  to  the  popular  mind  were  the  principal  ex[>ression  of 
religion.'  Women  were  gradually  placed  on  a  level  with  children 
and  slaves,  their  testimony  was  not  admitted  on  the  witness  stand,  not 
even  to  testify  for  the  appearance  of  the  moon.'  From  Deuteronomy 
xi,  19,'  it  was  deduced,  against  the  rules  of  the  Hebrew  language  and 
the  plain  sense  of  the  words,  that  daughters  must  not  receive  religious 
instruction,  and,  wdiile  Ben  Asai  taught  that  it  is  a  duty  to  give  such 
instruction  to  them,'  the  opinion  of  R.  Elieser  to  the  contrary  became 
so  popular  as  to  be  used  as  a  proverb.^  Finally  a  benediction  was  in- 
troduced in  the  daily  ritual  for  men,  tlianking  God,  that  he  had  not 
made  them  a  woman. "^  This  sentiment,  however,  sadly  as  it  has  in- 
fluenced the  position  of  woman  for  many  centuries,  was  far  from  being 
universal  in  the  early  part  of  this  period.     The  spirit  of  the  Jewish 

'  n,t:n;  p^n-c  ncT  nr^!:  Menaci.ot  43,  b. 

-  Rosh  llasliaiiii  -J-.'a. 

•  4 

*sotaiii.  4.  nnin^inn  hn*  "i!:SS  din*  y'n 
'ih.  rnSizn  nit^iS  iSno  nmn  inn  1*2^*2:1  '"^^^  i>^  isnc'* 
D'C'h  )'\Dy  Ski  n'^)n  nni 

^  Menachot  4'-'>,  b;   Tos.  Berachot  7,  IS;  Jer.  Berach.  13,  b. 


THE   POSITION    OF    WOMAN    AMOMi    THi:   JEWS.  249 

religion  was  too  strong  ever  to  be  entirely  suppressed  by  this  Jiarrow- 
miudedness,  and  the  Jewish  woman  was  far  from  beinir  deirraded 
thereby,  as  might  be  supposed. 

Not  all  the  prominent  Rabbis  indorsed  the  opinion  of  the  al)()ve- 
mentioned  E.  Elieser,  wlio  silenced  a  scholarly  woman  that  asked  liim 
about  the  explanation  of  a  biblical  passage  witli  the  impolite  words, 
"A  woman's  scholarship  sliould  be  confined  tu  the  spinning  wheel."  ' 
Many  were  of  the  same  view  as  Ben  Asai.  So  it  is  reported,  when  a 
halachic  question  was  discussed  at  one  time,  the  son  and  daughter  of 
Chauina  ben  Teradion  answered  it  each  in  a  different  manner,  and 
Jehuda  ben  Baba  said,  he  approved  of  the  answer  of  the  daughter.- 
A  conversation  on  religious  topics  is  recorded  of  R.  Jose  ben  Chalafta 
with  a  woman, ^  and  there  are  many  other  indications  of  a  similar  na- 
ture. Women  occuj)ied  high  positions  in  the  congregations.  Prof. 
Erail  Schiirer  furnishes  evidence  that  women  were  made  "Archisyna- 
gogos,"*  and  that  the  title  of  "  mater  synagogae"  not  unfrequently  oc- 
curs in  the  inscriptions.^  The  same  author  takes  it  for  granted  that 
at  the  time  of  Christ  the  sexes  were  strictly  separated  in  the  syna- 
gogue, although  there  is  no  mention  of  tliis  in  ancient  records  and  even 
in  the  Talmud  no  separate  place  for  women  is  spoken  of  anywhere. 
But  this  is  by  no  means  certain.  The  indications  rather  tend  to  prove 
that  the  strict  separation  of  the  sexes  at  the  synagogues  was  caused  by 
later  oriental  influence,  while  greater  freedom  seems  to  have  been  the 
rule  in  older  times.  The  court  of  women  at  the  temple  was  by  no 
means  reserved  for  women  alone  ;  many  functions  connected  with  the 
service  were  j^erformed  there  by  men,^  and  the  halls  under  the  court  of 
the  Israelites  opened  into  it. 

St.  Paul's  injunction,  "Let  your  women  keep  silence  in  the 
churches,"'  etc.,  shows  that  such  rule  had  not  been  obligatory  upon 
the  Jewish  women  and  a  Baraitha*  gives  women  the  riiiht  to  read 
from  the  Thora  at  the  public  services,  and  it  is  added  that  the  custom 
was  abolished  only  on  account  of  the  dignity  of  the  congregation 
(which  means  of  course  as  understood  in  oriental  countries). 

•  •  • 

'n:)^-:a  K^N*  nrN*  ^'C  nntDDn  |\S*  Jer.  Sota  19a;  Babli 
Joma  6iJb. 

'  1.3^!3   lilD    nitDN    (15^    'I'os.  Kelim  I,  4.  17.  '  Tanchuma,  Ber. 

*  Geschichte  des  jiidischen  Volkes  II,  p.  367.  ^  lb.,  p.  520. 

^  Middoth  II,  15,  there  the  Nazirs  cooked  their  offerings  and  cut  their 
hair,  and  priests  who  could  not  approach  the  altar  examined  the  wood, 
to  see  whether  it  was  worm  eaten. 

'  I  Corinth,  xv,  34,  35, 

^  Meg.  23,  a,  quoted  by  Low,  Lebensalter,  p.  201. 


250  HISTORY. 

During  the  middle  ages  the  higher  or  lower  position  of  the  Jewish 
women  was  determined  by  the  condition  of  the  nations  in  whose  midst 
the  Jews  lived.  It  was  better  in  Italy  where  women  in  general  took 
an  active  part  in  the  higher  culture  than  in  Germany  and  France. 
Still,  even  from  tiiose  countries,  a  number  of  names  of  scholarly  women 
has  been  preserved.^ 

The  daughter  of  Rashi  was  his  secretary  when  he  fell  sick  ;  Han- 
nah, the  sister  of  Rabbenu  Tarn,  instructed  the  women  of  her  town  in 
their  religious  duties,  and  renowned  Rabbis  quote  as  religious  author- 
ities distinguished  and  learned  women. ^ 

Pellicanus,  one  of  the  best  known  theologians  and  hebraists  in 
Germany  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  tells  in  his  auto- 
biograpliy  that  he  was  induced  to  take  up  the  study  of  Hebrew  because 
he  had  heard  that  a  Doctor  of  Theology  in  a  discussion  with  a  Jew  on 
the  Christian  religion  was  defeated  by  the  arguments  not  only  of  the 
Jew,  but  also  of  a  Jewess.' 

In  Italy  the  number  of  learned  Jewish  women  was  much  greater. 
Among  them,  the  Roman  woman,  Paula,  a  descendant  of  Nathan,  the 
author  of  the  Aruch,  who  made  a  beautiful  copy  of  many  commentaries 
of  the  Bible.  Immunuel  of  Rome  mentions  a  number  of  Jewish 
women  who  wrote  creditable  poetry. 

But,  although,  after  all,  women  of  scholarly  attainments  were  the 
rare  exceptions,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  same  was  the  case  every- 
where, and  that  the  few  Jewish  women  so  distinguished  deserve  the 
greater  credit  if  the  terrible  conditions  are  considered  under  which  the 
Jews  were  laboring.  No  degree  of  oppression,  however,  could  rob 
the  Jewish  woman  of  the  halo  of  chastity  and  unexceptional  purity 
with  which  she  was  surrounded,  and  which  shines  with  the  most 
brilliant  luster  when  comj^ared  with  the  moral  rottenness  wdiich,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  Christian  moralists  and  preachers,  was  the 
rule  in  the  sexual  relations  among  the  Christians  of  the  same  period.* 
All  the  Jewish  girls  were  trained  in  their  duties  as  wives  and  mothers; 
even  the  most  ignorant  ones  among  them  were  very  prominent  in  do- 
mestic virtues  and  morality,  and  many  sacrificed  their  lives  as  martyrs 
to  save  their  womanly  honor  and  to  remain  faithful  to  their  religion. 
In  accordance  with  this  distinction  was  the  treatment  they  received 
from  their  husbands  and  sons,  and  the  high  esteem  in  which  they  were 

'  See  Zunz,  Zur  Gesch.,  p.  172.     Berliner,  Aus  dem  inuern  Leben,  p.  51. 

*  8ee  Giideman,  Gesch.  des  Krziehungswcsens,  etc.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  231,  232. 
^  W.' Bat'lier  in  ]\[onat8schrift  zurlJesch.  u.  Wisscnsch.  dcs  Judcnth, 

June,  1893,  p.  402. 

*  See  Giideman,  Gesch.,  etc,  Vol.  I,  p.  234;   Vol.  11,  p.  217  tf. 


THE    POSITION    OF   WOMAN    AMONG    THE    JEWS.  251 

held.  R.  Melr  bea  Bariich,  of  Rothenburfr,  in  the  second  half  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  couhl  proudly  say:  "  It  is  utterly  unheard  of  for 
a  Jew  to  beat  his  wife,  as  it  is  customary  among  other  people."  ' 

While,  thus,  the  recognition  of  woman's  nobility  and  of  her  claim 
to  refined  treatment  and  high  consideration  I'emained  through  all 
times  a  characteristic  feature  of  Jews  of  all  classes  and  all  countries, 
the  peculiar  position  assigned  to  her  with  reference  to  religious  practice 
low,  though  it  was  in  theory,  was  far  from  exercising  a  degrading  in- 
fluence upon  her  spiritual  life.  On  the  contrary,  it  had  evidently 
the  opposite  tendency. 

Excluded  as  she  was  from  most  of  the  ceremouiarpart  of  religion, 
so  excessively  developed,  and  exempt  from  the  practice  of  those  mani- 
fold duties  which  lent  to  the  Jews  their  peculiar  oriental  aspect,  she 
was  largely  saved  fi'om  the  dangers  of  that  formalism  which  so  easily 
crushes  under  its  weight  all  truly  religious  sentiment.  She  was  led  to 
cencentrate  her  efforts  upon  the  essential  part  of  religion,  upon  that 
which  is  alike  the  true  end  and  aim  of  all  religions  independent  of 
creed  or  denomination.  She  remained  the  representative  and  pre- 
server of  idealism  and  of  that  genuine  prophetic  spirit  which  tends  to 
promote  the  glorification  of  Judaism,  and  to  further  the  realization  of 
the  brotherhood  of  humanity.  This  was  constantly  appreciated,  and 
explains  the  singularly  elevated  and  ideal  position  of  the  female  sex 
among  the  Jews.  As  far  removed  from  the  unhealthy  worsliip  of  feudal 
chivalry  which  made  woman  an  object  of  a  playful  cult,  as  from  the 
extreme  views  of  those  who,  clamoring  for  woman's  rights,  wish  to  ob- 
literate all  the  natural  distinctions  between  the  two  sexes,  the  Jews 
always  and  every-where  appreciated  the  high  significance  of  woman's 
work  for  the  noblest  goods,  the  gain  of  true  liberty,  and  the  conserva- 
tion of  religious  sentiment.  The  whole  history  of  the  Jews  and  their 
literature  testify  to  this,  Aggadists  and  preachers  never  get  tii-ed  of 
dwelling  thereon,  showing  their  own  views  of  woman  by  the  use  they 
make, of  scriptural  texts.  It  was  owing  to  the  merit  of  the  pious 
women,  the  preachers  said,  that  Israel  was  delivered  from  Egypt. '^ 
On  Sinai  Moses  was  instructed  to  win  over  the  women  first  to  -accept 
his  teachings.''  They  taught  their  children  love  of  God  and  love  of 
their  fellow-men,  the  practice  of  unlimited  charity,  and  filled  them 
with  enthusiasm  for  noble  works.* 

'  Eesponsa  ed.  ("remona  No.  291.     niDH*?  1J!*J|^  ^U    "jll     Hi    p{^ 

-Seta  11.  ^  Mechilta  Jethro. 


252  HISTORY. 

Rabbi  Joseph  Jabez  relates  that  the  Jewish  women  in  Spain  en- 
couraged their  despondent  husbands  to  remain  true  to  their  faith,  and 
rather  suffer  the  agonies  of  death  on  tlie  pyres  of  the  Inquisition  than 
to  deny  the  truth  which  it  was  their  mission  to  teach/ 

They  found  their  noblest  work  in  faithfully  discharging  their  du- 
ties as  wives  and  mothers;  they  were  the  priestesses  at  the  sacred 
hearth  of  the  home,  gave  the  family  a  religious  atmosphere,  and  in- 
fused it  w^ith  that  affection,  sincerity,  and  holiness  by  which  it  is 
proverbially  distinguished,  they  saved  Judaism  from  becoming  a 
church  religion,  and  made  it  most  emphatically  a  religinn  of  life. 

This  wonderful  religious  power  the  Jewish  woman  acquired  by  be- 
ing saved  from  spending  her  energy  on  much  of  that  formal  part  of 
Judaism  which  had  such  an  exuberant  growth.  So  she  could  and  did 
become  the  most  important  factor  in  cultivating  that  part  of  religion 
Avhich  has  its  root  in  the  heart. 

This  explains  also  how  it  happened  in  the  last  epoch,  since  the 
shades  of  darkness  gradually  began  to  lift  and  the  sun  of  liberty  and 
justice  to  shine  for  the  Jews,  that  wherever  the  Jews  stripped  their 
religion  of  the' old  oriental  garments  forced  upon  them  through  a  thou- 
sand years,  wherever  they  could  emerge  from  their  compulsory  ex- 
clusiveness  and  were  permitted  to  take  part  in  the  con)mon  labors  of 
humanity,  and  especially  where  many  of  the  ceremonies  by  which 
men  alone  w^ere  formerly  distinguished  have  been  recognized  in  their 
true  value  and  to  a  great  extent  dropped,  the  Jewish  woman  was  at 
once  ready  to  take  the  most  active  and  public  part  in  every  branch  of 
religious  work  ;  that  she  even  excelled  man  in  enthusiasm  and  de- 
votion. 

As  .soon  as  the  spirit  of  liberty  began  to  purify  the  air,  and  the  na- 
tions were  delivered  from  the  undisputed  sway  of  intolerance,  the  Jews 
were  aroused  from  their  lethargy  and  their  leading  men  began  with 
energy  to  demand  the  en)ancipation  of  the  Jewish  wives  and  mothers 
and  daughters  from  their  religious  minority  and  their  legal  restoration 
to  the  position  which  they  had  never  totally  ceased  to  hold  in  fact. 
How  nmdest  and  insignificant  these  demands  were  at  first  can  be 
learned  from  the  literature  of  fifty  years  ago,  when  it  was  regarded  as 
a  great  achievement  to  insist  upon  the  abolishment  of  the  obsolete 
chalitza  and  to  reform  laws,  made  for  an  entirely  different  state  of  civ- 
ilization, whicii  condemned  Jewish  wives  to  the  bonds  of  a  hopeless 
widowhood,  and  when   scholars  spent   their  learned   efforts   to  prove 

'orhachayim.^ch.f).  jp^  \s*»Dm  iN^D  nvi"i5Dn  □*::*.3n  n^n  rn 

'"tn  n'il'^ip  hy  \n'h};2^  'looted  by  Jelllnek. 


THE   POSITION    OF   WOMAN    AMONG    THE   JEWS.  253 

that,  accordiug  t3  Jewish  law,  married  women  are  not  obliged  to  cut 
off  their  hair  and  cover  their  heads.' 

Great  strides  in  advance  have  since  been  made  among  the  Jews  in 
all  civilized  countries.  Nobody  in  Europe,  outside  of  the  semi-bar- 
barous nations  where  media'valism  yet  reigns  supreme,  nobodv  in 
America  would  still  think  of  subscribing  to  the  preposterous  idea  that 
woman  is  inferior  to  man  in  a  religious  sense;  that  she  has  not  the 
same  rights  and  the  same  obligations.  Nobody  would  think  of  deny- 
ing that  she  is  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the  promotion  of  religious 
life  and  religious  sentiment.  Religious  instruction  is  therefore  given 
with  equal  thoroughness  to  the  boys  and  girls  alike,  and  well  is  tlie  fact 
appreciated,  that  the  flourishing  condition  of  our  Jewish  congregations 
in  America,  where  the  work  done  and  the  sacrifices  made  are  entirely 
spontaneous,  could  not  exist  without  the  noble  and  active  co-operation 
of  our  women.  Their  woik  in  the  department  of  active  and  especially 
organized  charity  is  as  zealous  in  the  smallest  as  in  the  largest  congre- 
gations. It  grows  in  scope  in  accordance  with  the  larger  opportunities 
offered  in  the  great  centers  of  population.  It  is  as  distinguished  and 
elaborate  at  Paris  and  London,  at  Berlin  and  St.  Petersburg,  as  it  is 
at  New  York  and  Chicago.^ 

In  all  our  progressive  Jewish  congregations,  women  render  the 
most  valuable  services  as  teachers  at  the  schools  of  religious  instruc- 
tion, and  it  is  well  known  that  they  furnish  the  largest  contingent  in 
the  attendance  at  religious  services. 

Nevertheless,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  work  has  been  only  begun, 

'  See  Geiger,  Wissench.  Zeitsclirift,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1  and  o54. 

Mt  is  a  source  of  great  regret  that  complete  statistics  are  not  avaihible 
of  the  charitable  work  of  .Jewish  women  everywhere.  A  successful  at- 
tempt has  been  made  in  this  direction  in  the  book,  "  Woman's  I\Iission," 
edited  by  the  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts,  and  published  by  the  Royal  British 
Commission  of  the  Chicago  Exhibition.  An  account  as  interesting  as  it  is 
gratifying  is  there  given  of  the  Jewish  women's  philanthropic  work  in 
London,  where  they  conduct  every  kind  of  preventive  and  rescue  work. 
Among  other  charitable  institutions  they  have  a  .Jewish  ladies"  loan  soci- 
ety, which  has  worked  well  for  the  last  forty-six  years,  and  has  met  with 
marked  success.  It  assists  the  deserving  poor  with  loans  of  money  without 
interest  in  sums  from  ten  shillings  to  ten  pounds,  which  are  repaid  in 
weekly  installments  of  one-twentieth  until  the  debt  is  litpiiilated. 

During  1892,  359  loans  were  granted,  the  loans  amounting  to  i:2,0:]2 
10s.,  the  repayment  being  £1,908.  It  is  added  that  the  good  offices  of  the 
Jewish  ladies  are  by  no  means  confined  to  their  co-religionists,  but  are 
very  largely  extended  also  to  the  Christians,  and  many  of  them  gladly  co- 
operate in  efibrts  for  the  spread  of  education,  wholesome  recreation  and 
temperance  with  Christian  workers.     Pp.  143,  144. 


254  HISTORY. 

that  much  reniaius  to  be  done,  and  that  it  will  not  be  completed  un- 
til perfect  religious  equality  has  been  established  between  men  and 
women. 

There  is  no  conceivable  reason  why  our  women  should  not  have  a 
voice  in  the  management  of  our  congregations,  why  they  should  not 
enjoy  all  the  jirivileges  of  active  membership,  why  they  should  not  be 
elected  to  lend  their  aid,  their  ^visdom  and  enthusiasm,  as  trustees  and 
members  of  the  school  boards/ 

Only  if  this  last  step  has  been  taken,  when  our  women  will  be 
enabled  to  contribute  their  full  share  to  our  religious  activity,  shall  we 
have  some  prospect  of  removing  that  baneful  iudifterentisni  of  which 
there  is  so  much  complaint  everywhere. 

They  will  again  restore  to  Judaism,  purified  from  the  dross  of 
former  ages,  its  fire  and  inwardness  which  inspire  all  to  make  noble 
sacrifices,  not  only  of  their  substance,  but  of  their  personal  service. 

From  our  magnificent  temples  they  will  auain  ti-ansplant  genuine 
religious  spirit  into  the  bosom  of  the  families,  they  will  cause  Jadaism 
to  be  placed  in  its  jn-oper  light  before  the  world,  tiiey  will  be  instru- 
mental in  bringing  its  influence  to  bear  upon  the  people  at  large  by 
educating  a  generation  which,  wdth  the  old  fidelity  and  entliusiasm, 
will  exclaim  :   "All  that  God  has  spoken  we  will  do." 

'  For  a  number  of  years  women  liave  served  as  members  of  the  school 
board  of  mv  congregation  at  IJochesier. 


STATE  AND  SOCIETY. 


JUDAISM  AND  THE  MODERN  STATE. 

By  rabbi  DAVID  PHILIPSON,  D.D. 


The  modern  state  may  be  said  to  date  from  the  year  1789,  when, 
on  the  one  liand,  the  French  revolution,  violent  outburst  of  an  op- 
pressed nation,  become  conscious  of"  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  it  and 
of  the  rights  whereof  it  had  been  deprived,  opened  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  government,  not  alone  in  France,  but  in  Europe  at  large,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  in  this  United 
States  demonstrated  that  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  men  politically 
had  at  last  been  realized.  New  principles  of  statecraft  came  into 
vogue.  The  age  of  the  absolutism  of  liereditary  rule  had  passed.  The 
period  of  the  reign  of  the  people  had  dawned.  The  shot  of  emancipa- 
tion had  been  fired  that  had  been  heard  around  the  world.  The  new 
evangel  of  human  right  and  human  liberty  had  been  proclaimed,  and 
whatever  occasional  relapses  the  cause  of  freedom  may  have  suffered 
ill  the  years  that  have  since  ensued,  the  course  has  been  steadily  on- 
ward and  upward,  the  spirit  awakened  in  1789  has  never  quite  disap- 
peared from  the  rulings  and  doings  of  men.  The  primary  principles 
whereon  the  modern  state  rests  are  the  individual  freedom  of  men  and 
popular  representation  in  the  councils  of  state  ;  these  may  be  said  to 
have  been  first  effectually  declared  by  the  English  Puritans.  Their 
descendants,  the  American  fathers,  founders  of  this  republican  govern- 
ment, imbibed  their  thoughts  and  embodied  them  in  the  Declaraiinn 
of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Now,  the 
Puritans  were  guided  in  their  thoughts  and  lives  almost  altogether  by 
the  Old  Testament  writings,  hence  the  doctrines  that  lay  at  the  founda- 
tion of  the  modern  state,  notably  as  represented  by  government  in  this 
country,  were  through  these  political  disciples  of  the  Jews  of  old  drawn 
from  the  pages  of  the  Jewish  bible  that  regulated  the  formation  and 
government  of  the  old  Jewish  state.  The  political  philosophy  of  the 
niediseval  state  was  laid  on  the  lines  marked  out  by  Rome,  the  political 
|)hilosophy  of  the  modern  state  on  tlie  i<leas  first  promulgated  by  the 
great  Jewish  law-givei-  of  the  olden  days  ;  therefore  the  first  proposition 
in  regard  to  the  relation  of  Judaism  to  the  modern  state  is  the  broad 
declaration  that  the  principle  of  government  of  the  modern  state  was 
17  (257) 


258  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

anticipated  by  Jewish  legislation  in  the  far  past.  And  with  the  up- 
growing  of  the  modern  state,  the  living  descendants  of  those  who  in 
that  far  past  first  outlined  its  principles,  obtained  the  rights  of  whicli, 
under  the  vicious  legislation  of  the  mediaeval  state,  they  had  been  en- 
tirely deprived. 

In  the  mediaeval  state,  the  Jews  and  Judaism  were  unknown  fac- 
tors. They  had  no  position  whatsoever.  The  state  was  Christian,  the 
church  and  the  state  were  closely  connected,  and  in  a  Christian  state 
there  was  no  room  for  any  but  Christians;  there  were  no  rights  for 
any  but  Christians.  The  Jew  plainly  then  had  no  rights.  In  the 
eyes  of  the  state,  dominated  by  the  church,  the  Jew  was  an  existing 
evil,  living  under  a  curse;  Judaism  was  a  snperstitio  et  perfidia,  a  per- 
fidy and  a  superstition.  True,  in  constitutions,  edicts,  bulls,  there 
were  frequently  paragraphs  devoted  to  the  Jews,  but  these  set  forth 
not  their  rights,  but  their  lack  of  rights. 

The  church  legislation  as  embodied  in  the  rubrics  of  church  coun- 
cils and  synods  was  the  inspiration  for  the  regulations  of  the  state. 
The  Jew  could  hold  no  office,  was  not  admitted  into  the  army,  was 
not  eligible  as  a  witness  in  the  courts,  had  no  free  right  of  residence, 
but  was  compelled  to  dwell  in  such  districts  and  quarters  as  might  be 
set  aside  for  him  and  his,  could  not  travel  from  place  to  place  without 
paying  the  Jew-toll,  could  not  tarry  in  a  town  without  paying  a  special 
tax,  and  even  then  often  not  longer  than  over  night ;  in  short,  the  Jew 
had  no  standing  as  a  citizen  or  a  man,  all  the  laws  and  regulations 
dealing  with  him  were  restrictive ;  he  was  permitted  to  exist  (and  at 
times  not  even  that),  but  to  live  a  free  life  was  not  to  him  granted. 
The  story  of  the  relation  of  the  Jew  to  [the  mediaeval  state  presents 
a  monotonous  sameness  in  all  lands,  it  is  the  tale  of  the  man  with- 
out a  country,  for  however  eagerly  and  anxiously  the  Jew  may  have 
desired  to  serve  the  land  of  his  adoption  he  was  repelled  ;  he  was  only  an 
alien  tolerated  until  it  miglit  please  the  powers  that  were  to  drive  him 
forth.  In  a  word,  he  had  no  legal  or  civic  standing;  he  was  excluded 
from  the  enjoyment  of  every  right ;  he  was  in  the  state,  but  not  of  it.  It 
is  not  my  purpose  to  dwell  upon  the  dread  persecutions  and  oppressions 
to  which  the  Jews  were  continually  subjected  nor  to  call  up  the  harrow- 
ing scenes  of  plunder,  pillage,  outrage,  murder,  that  blacken  the 
records  of  those  days ;  man's  inhumanity  to  man  has  never  appeared 
in  more  lurid  light  than  in  this  martyrdom  of  the  Jewish  pco])le,  illus- 
trating nuirvelous  constancy  on  the  one  hand  and  incredible  cruelty 
on  the  other.  Thus  did  it  continue  until  the  dawn  of  the  new  time 
when  the  first  gray  streaks  of  light  appeared  on  the  horizon  and  the 
oppressed  classes  every-where  began  to  be  the  objects  of  the  consideration 


JUDAISM    AND    TilE    MODERN    STATE.  259 

of  statesmeu  and  law-making  bodies.  It  is  not  necessary  for  rae  to 
state  that  there  are  no  cataclysms  in  history ;  we  name  the  year  1789 
as  the  beginning  of  the  new  time,  the  modern  state,  but  it  is  remark- 
able merely  as  fhe  date  when  the  ideas  as  to  human  rights  that  had 
been  in  the  air  for  many  years  found  active  expression  ;  thus  too  the 
anomalous  position  of  the  Jews  struck  the  attention  of  thinkers,  and 
in  the  year  1781  the  statesman,  Johann  Konrad  Wilhelm  von  Dohm, 
published  his  book  on  the  improvement  of  the  civil  condition  of  the 
Jews,  the  first  serious  attempt  at  treating  the  question  historically, 
philosophically,  and  humanly  ;  he  pleads  for  the  removal  of  civil  disa- 
bilities from  the  Jews  and  for  placing  them  on  an  equal  footing  with 
other  subjects. 

The  first  eflfective  step  taken  toward  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews 
was  the  celebrated  Edict  of  Toleration  of  the  Emperor  Joseph  II  of 
Austria  in  the  year  1782.  Although  it  was  far  from  granting  full  free- 
dom to  the  Jewish  subjects  of  the  empire  in  every  respect,  yet  it  was 
a  sign  of  the  times,  the  first  real  result  in  Europe  of  the  working  of  the 
new  spirit  and  the  new  ideas.  It  was  the  first  recognition  on  the  part 
of  the  state  of  the  fact  that  the  Jew  was  also  entitled  to  consideration, 
the  forerunner  of  the  legislation  of  the  modern  state.  The  atmosphere 
was  clearing  during  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Class 
rights,  class  distinctions,  class  exclusions,  vicious  class  legislation,  were  to 
disappear  in  the  light  of  the  new  time.  The  first  clear  note  sounded  from 
this  side  of  the  world  :  "  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  the 
establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof." 
Unmistakably  the  separation  of  church  and  state  was  here  proclaimed  ; 
no  special  legislation  regarding  Chatholics,  Protestants,  Jews,  infidels;  no 
classes  or  sects  mentioned  ;  all  equal  as  men.  Not  having  past  traditions 
to  hamper  them,  the  framers  of  the  constitution  took  as  their  text  the 
equality  of  all  men  as  men  and  labored  accordingly.  There  was  no 
question  as  to  the  relation  of  any  religious  body  to  the  state  on  these 
shores ;  this  is  the  correct,  the  ideal  attitude  of  the  state,  character- 
istic of  the  modern  state  in  its  true  realization.  So  that  it  would  seem 
that,  as  far  as  this  laud  is  concerned,  the  question  of  the  relation  of 
the  Jews  to  the  state  is  an  idle  one,  but  unfortunately  it  was  not,  as 
we  shall  have  occasion  to  see  later  on. 

France,  true  to  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  granted  full 
emancipation  to  its  Jewish  subjects  by  the  act  of  the  National  Assem- 
bly of  September  27,  1791,  by  which  it  declared  that  all  Jews  who 
took  the  oath  of  citizenship  and  assumed  the  duties  of  citizenship 
should  be  considered  Frenchmen.  But  it  was  not  without  a  struggle 
that  this  was  accomplished,  and  it  will  be  interesting  to  briefly  recount 


260  STATE    AND   SOCIF.TY. 

the  steps  of  the  struggle,  since  it  involves  the  consideration  of  Juda- 
ism's attitude  to  the  state.  In  the  year  1789  the  question  of  the 
emancipation  of  the  Jews  was  before  the  Assembly ;  the  Abbe  Gre- 
goire,  one  of  the  deputies,  wlio  before  this  time  had  already  espoused 
their  cause,  arose  and  exclaimed:  "Asa  minister  of  a  religion  that 
regards  all  men  as  brethren,  I  invoke  the  intervention  of  the  Assem- 
bly in  favor  of  a  proscribed  and  unhappy  people."  But  his  expression 
was  unfortunate  ;  this  was  the  very  thing  that  those  who  opposed  the 
granting  of  full  rights  to  the  Jews  insisted  on,  viz.,  that  the  Jews  were 
a  people,  that  they  considered  themselves  a  nation  with  national  hopes 
and  expectations  of  their  o^vn,  that  they  were  an  imperimn  in  iinperio, 
and  hence  could  not  be  truly  patriotic.  Tiiis  has  been  the  cry  of  the 
enemies  of  Judaism  and  the  Jews  ever  since,  and  still  to-day  we  hear 
it;  and  that,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  on  every  battlefield  during 
this  century  Jewish  l)lood  has  l)een  spilled  and  Jewish  lives  have  l)een 
sacrificed  for  their  country,  and  that,  too,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  on 
every  possible  occasion  the  Jewish  pulpit  and  the  Jewish  press  have 
uttered  the  most  patriotic  sentiments,  and  that,  too,  in  .spite  of  the 
fact  that  time  and  time  again  Jewish  representative  men  have  de- 
clared, and  it  has  come  to  be  an  accepted  tenet  of  modern  Judaism 
that  the  Jews  do  not  constitute  a  nation,  but  only  a  religious  commu- 
nity ;  that  tiiey  do  not  look  for  the  coming  of  a  personal  Messiah  whO' 
will  lead  them  back  to  Palestine  and  reconstruct  tlie  Jewish  state,  that 
they  have  no  political  hopes  or  ideals  other  than  those  of  the  nation  in 
whose  midst  they  dwell  and  of  which  they  form  component  parts.  As 
long  ago  as  1806  the  Emperor  Napoleon  called  together  an  assembly  of 
representative  Jews  of  France  and  Italy.  This  assembly  is  known  as 
the  French  Sanhedrin  ;  before  this  body  tlie  Emperor  laid  twelve 
questions  for  discussion  and  answer  ;  the  resj)onses  to  these  questions 
were  to  stamp  the  attitude  of  Judaism  in  regard  to  matters  that  in- 
volved the  commonweal,  and  particularly  the  relation  of  the  profess- 
ors of  the  faith  to  those  standing  outside  of  its  ranks.  Three  of  these 
questions  bear  directly  upon  the  subject  in  hand,  the  fourth,  fifth  and 
sixth;  they  were  as  follows  :  "Are  the  French  regarded  by  the  Jews 
as  strangers  or  as  brothers?  How  are  the  Jews  to  dejKJrt  themselves 
toward  the  French  legally?  Do  the  Jews  born  in  France  regard  this 
as  their  fatherland,  and  do  they  consider  themselves  bound  to  defend 
it?  do  they  owe  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  land?"  The  res])onses 
were  as  follows:  "The  Jews  look  upon  the  French  as  brethren. 
Moses  long  ago  commanded  kindness  toward  strangers  ;  how  much 
more  must  the  Jews  regard  those  as  brethren  with  whom  they  live  in 
one  land,  under  one  law  ;  yea,  through  whose  humanity  they  are  now 
enjoying  the  best  imaginable  condition    of  citizenship.     The  attitude 


JUDAISM    AND    THE    MODERN    STATE.  2iy\ 

of  Jews  toward  non-Jews  is  exactly  the  same  as  towanl  Jews.  Only 
in  tlieir  religion  do  they  differ.  The  French  Jews  regarded  France  as 
their  fatherland,  even  in  time  of  great  oppression  ;  how  much  niore 
now,  after  being  placed  on  an  equal  footing  with  all  citizens.  The 
Jews  have  often  given  testimony  of  their  love  of  country  in  battle." 
In  the  year  1842  a  number  of  Jews  of  Frankfort,  in  meeting  assem- 
bled, declared,  among  other  things  (and  this  may  be  taken  as  a  brief 
and  clear  expression  of  Judaism's  attitude  toward  the  modern  state), 
"  We  neither  expect  nor  desire  a  Messiah  who  will  lead  the  Israelites 
back  to  Palestine;  we  know  no  fatherland  but  tiiat  to  which  by  birth 
and  civic  relations  we  belong;"  and  in  that  remarka1)le  document 
known  as  the  Declaration  of  Principles,  adopted  by  the  Conference  of 
Rabbis,  assembled  in  Pittsburgh  in  November,  1885,  and  hailed  with 
acclaim  as  one  of  the  clearest  and  most  comprehensive  statements  of 
the  teachings  of  Judaism  that  had  ever  been  f  irmulated,  we  find  this 
paragraph  bearing  upon  the  subject  in  hand,  which,  being  the  latest 
l)ublic  deliverance,  may  be  set  down  as  the  true  expression  of  Jewish 
teachinc::  "  We  recno-nize  in  the  modern  era  of  universal  culture  of 
heart  and  intellect  the  approaching  of  the  realization  of  Israel's  great 
Messianic  hope  for  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  truth,  justice 
and  peace  among  all  men.  We  consider  ourselves  no  longer  a  nation, 
but  a  religious  community,  and  therefore  expect  neither  a  return  to 
Palestine  nor  a  sacrificial  worship  under  the  sons  of  Aaron,  nor  the 
restoration  of  any  of  the  laws  concerning  a  Jewish  state." 

The  position  of  Judaism  then  in  regard  to  the  state  is  very  clear; 
its  followers  are  Jews  in  religion  only,  children  of  their  fatherland, 
whatever  or  wherever  it  may  be,  in  all  that  pertains  to  tlie  public 
Aveal.  Judaism  discountenances  the  ccmnection  of  church  and  state. 
Each  shall  attend  to  its  own.  Judaism  teaches  its  confessors  that  if 
any  contingency  should  arise  (an  occurrence,  however,  of  which  I  can 
not  conceive)  in  which  it,  the  religion,  should  be  in  conflict  with  the 
state,  the  religion  must  take  the  second  place,  for  we  recognize  no 
power  within  a  power ;  the  two,  religion  and  civil  government,  have 
distinct  and  individuar  provinces,  neither  shall,  neither  need  encroach 
upon  the  other. 

Thus  run  Judaism's  teachings  as  aflfecting  the  state.  Let  us 
now  briefly  review  the  attitude  of  the  modern  state  toward  the  Jew 
and  Judaism,  showing  how  gradually  right  was  done  and  emancipa- 
tion from  mediaeval  shackles  and  restrictions  gained  during  the  course 
of  this  century.  We  have  seen  how  in  France  the  National  Assembly 
of  1791  declared  the  Jewish  residents  of  the  country  French  citizens 
with  all  the  rights  of  citizenship;   nor  with   all   the   many  changes  of 


262  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

governmeut  was  this  act  ever  reversed;  true,  during   the  reigus  of 
Louis  XVIII  and  Charles  X,  after  the  fall  of  Napoleon,  the  church 
gained  great  ascendancy,  but  the   rights  of  the  Jews  as  citizens  was 
uever  revoked.     After  the  July  revolution,  in  1830,  the  final  step  to- 
ward a  complete  recognition  of  the  equal  standing  of  Judaism  with  the 
Christian  faiths  was   taken  when   the   ministers  of  the  Jewish  church 
were  placed  on  the  civil  list  and  paid  their  salaries  by  the  government, 
and  the   very  last  vestige  of  the  regulations  of  the  mediaeval  state 
anent   the  Jews   disappeared  when,  in  1839,  through    the  efforts   of 
AdolpheCremieux,  the  oath  more  Judaico,  the  special  form  of  oath  pre- 
scribed  for  the  Jews  as  distinct  from   the  Christians,  was  abolished. 
In  France  the  attitude  of  the  modern  state  has  been  fully  upheld  for 
over  a  century.     In  civil  matters  there  is  no  question  of  Jew  or  Juda- 
ism, of  Catholic  or  Catholicism,  of  Protestant  or  Protestantism  ;   the 
state  deals  with   men,  not  with  opinions  or  beliefs.     But  one   other 
state  of  Eurojie  has  a  like  record  of  justice  to  present.     On  the  declara- 
tion of  the  Batavian  Republic,  the  National  Assembly  of  Holland,  in 
1796,  invested  its  Jewish   subjects  with  the  full  rights  of  citizenship. 
Louis  Napoleon,  when   king  of  the  country,  ratified  the  act,  modified 
the  form  of  oath,  and  admitted  the  Jews  to  military  service;  and  after 
1814,  William  I,  proceeding  in  a  like  manner,  regulated  the  legal  and 
civil  position  of  his  Jewish  subjects  in  the  most  liberal  spirit,  and 
swept  away  every  distinction  that  marked  them  in  the  mediaeval  legis- 
lation.    These  two  countries  present  the  bright  side ;  into  the  other 
governments  of  Europe  the  principles  of  the  modern  state,  as  founded 
upon  the  natural  rights  of  man,  gained  slow  entrance  as  far  as  the 
Jews  were  concerned.     True,  the  victories  of  the  armies  of  the  French 
Republic  and   Empire  carried   the   principles  of  the  Revolution  into 
other  lands,  and  in  the  early  years  of  the  century  those  countries  that 
came  particularly  under  French    influence,  such   as  Westphalia,  the 
kingdom   of  Jerome  Bonaparte,  tlie  Rhine  provinces,  and   Italy  ex- 
tended to  the  Jews  rights  of  citizenship.     Most  of  the  German  king- 
doms, in  fact  Prussia,  Baden,  Bavaria,  began  to  take  steps  in  a  like 
direction  and  to  recognize  the  right  of  the  Jews  to  be  treated  as  men. 
The  new  spirit  was  working  every-where;  but  after  Waterloo  came  the 
reaction.     jNIediaevalism  in  thought  and  practice  became  the  fashion. 
The  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  passed  a  resolution  seemingly  favorable 
to  Jewish  emancipation,  but  it  meant  nothing.     The  Jews  in  the  Ger- 
man states  were  forced  back  into  the  old  situation.     This  was  the  more 
bitter  to  bear  after  the  high  hopes  that  had  been  aroused.     Disgrace- 
ful scenes  of  pillage  and  persecution  were  re-enacted  in  German  towns. 
In  Wurzburg,  Frankfurt,  and  others  the  hep-hep  cry  again  resounded. 


JUDAISM    AND    THE   MODERN    STATE.  263 

the  night  of  mediaevalism  again  threatened  to  settle  upon  Jewry  ;  but 
this  could  not  last.  The  Jews  themselves,  men  trained  in  the  modern 
spirit,  took  up  the  fight  and  bravely  struggled  for  human  rights,  men 
who  would  not  sell  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage,  who  would 
not  renounce  their  Judaism  to  gain  the  rights  of  citizenship.  Chief 
among  these,  the  leader  in  the  struggle  for  Jewish  emancipation,  was 
Gabriel  Riesser,  who  with  word  and  pen  advocated  the  cause,  urged 
the  formation  of  clubs  for  the  furtherance  of  emancipation,  addres^^ed 
statesmen  and  legislators,  called  upon  the  Jews  to  demand  full  equality 
not  as  a  favor  but  as  a  right,  clearly  demonstrated  the  principles  of  the 
modern  state  in  the  matter,  and  lived  to  see  his  cherished  hopes  real- 
ized, for  the  year  1848,  year  of  storm  and  stress,  finally  brought  to 
fruition  the  seeds  sown  in  1789.  In  that  year,  or  shortly  thereafter, 
the  states  of  Western  Europe  expiated  the  wrongs  of  centuries  an<l  ex- 
punged from  their  statute  books  the  special,  discriminating,  degrading 
regulations  against  their  subjects  of  the  Jewish  faith.  In  that  year, 
Baden  and  Sweden,  in  the  following,  Denmark,  in  1850,  Prussia  did 
the  act  of  justice.  In  1860,  Bavaria,  in  1867,  Austria,  in  1874, 
Switzerland  fell  into  line.  As  ea,v]f  as  1821,  Portugal,  that  in  1506 
had  expelled  the  Jews,  following  the  example  of  Spain  in  1492,  two- 
foced  year,  re-admitted  them  with  full  rights. 

In  Italy  the  cause  had  its  ups  and  downs.  Joined  to  the  fortunes 
of  France  by  the  conquests  of  Napoleon,  the  Italian  states,  too,  were 
included  in  the  French  legislation  on  the  rights  of  the  Jews,  but  with 
the  fall  of  Xapoleon  and  the  return  of  tlie  Pt)pe  in  1815,  the  same 
story  of  reaction  that  I  have  told  as  characterizing  the  German  states 
can  be  rehearsed.  The  Jews  of  Rome  were  driven  back  into  tiie 
Ghetto  and  the  woik  of  emancipation  was  slow.  1849  witnessed  Sar- 
dinia proclaim  equal  rights  to  all  without  distinction  of  faith.  Tuscany 
and  Lombardy,  followed  in  1859;  Umbria  in  1860,  Naples  and  Sicily 
in  1861,  Venice  in  1866,  and  finally  Rome,  with  the  establishment  of 
the  Italian  kingdom  in  1870. 

Euglaud  was  in  the  fore  front  of  all  European  governments  in 
agitations  for  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews.  As  early  as  1753  a  bill 
Avas  passed  in  Parliament  granting  the  Jewish  residents  of  the  country 
the  rights  of  citizenship,  but,  owing  to  the  protests  of  the  merchants 
of  Loudon  and  other  towns,  the  bill  was  reconsidered  and  repealed. 
A  long  time  elapsed  ere  the  question  of  Jewish  emancipation  again 
became  the  subject  of  parliamentary  discission.  In  1833,  Robert 
Grant  introduced  a  bill  to  that  effect.  Lord  Macaulay  supported  it 
with  his  well  known  speech  on  the  civil  disabilities  of  the  Jews.  The 
bill  was  passed  time  and  again  ;  ten  tin)es  by  the  House  of  Commons, 


264  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

and  the  Lords  rejected  it  as  often.  In  1847,  Baron  Lionel  De  Roth- 
schild was  elected  a  member  of  Parliament.  He  could  not  enter  upon 
his  office  because  he  would  not  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  "  in  the 
true  faith  of  a  Christian."  Ndt  till  1858  was  he  able  to  take  his  seat, 
when  the  House  passed  Sir  John  Russell's  bill,  which  permitted  Jews 
to  omit  these  words.  This  was  first  made  a  special  resolution,  but,- in 
186G,  the  Parliamentary  Oaths  Act  Amendment  was  passed  removing 
the  words  in  question  from  the  oath  altogether.  In  1885,  Lord  Roth- 
schild (Sir  Nathaniel)  took  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords,  the  first 
Jewish  English  peer. 

In  this  country,  from  the  very  inception  of  the  government,  there 
was  as  a  matter  of  course  no  sucli  thing  possible  as  civil  disability  on 
account  of  religious  faith  ;  all  who  possessed  the  qualifications  and 
fulfilled  the  legal  requirements  of  citizenship  w^ere  equal  bef  )re  the 
law  ;  there  was  no  religions  test.  This  was  true  as  far  as  the  Federal 
government  was  concerned,  yet  could  the  separate  states  enact  special 
legislation  demanding  religious  tests. 

This  was,  for  example,  the  case  in  Maryland  as  far  as  the  Jews 
were  concerned.  The  thirtv-fifth*section  of  the  constitution  of  1778 
reads  as  follows  :  "  No  other  test  or  qualification  ought  to  be  re(]uirerl, 
on  admission  to  any  office  of  trust  or  profit,  than  such  oath  of  support 
and  fidelity  to  this  state  and  such  oath  of  office  as  shall  be  directed  by 
this  convention  or  the  legislature  of  this  state  and  a  declaration  of  be- 
lief in  the  Christian  religion."  By  this,  of  course,  the  Jews  were  ex- 
cluded. In  1818,  a  l)il]  was  introduced  into  tlie  legislature  known  as 
the  "Jew  Bill,"  whose  object  it  was  to  remove  the  civil  disabilities  of 
the  Jewish  citizens  of  the  state.  For  eight  years  the  struggle  lasted, 
and  the  bill  was  finally  passed  in  1826.  In  consequence  of  this,  we 
find  in  the  new  constitution  adopted  in  1851  tiie  following  addition  to 
the  above  quoted  clause  :  "And  if  the  party  shall  profess  to  be  a 
Jew,  the  declaratiou  shall  be  of  his  belief  in  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  puuishments."  In  the  constitution  of  1864  (Declaration  of  Rights, 
Art.  37),  we  find  still  further  progress  of  the  spirit  of  liberty,  the 
article  being  amended  to  read  as  follows  :  "No  other  test  or  qualfi- 
catiou  ouglit  to  be  required,  on  admission  to  any  office  of  trust  or  profit, 
than  such  oatli  of  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  this  state  and  the  United 
States  as  may  be  prescribed  by  this  constitution  or  the  laws  of  the  state 
and  a  declaration  of  belief  in  the  Christian  religion  or  in  the  existence 
of  God,  and  in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments;"  and, 
finally,  to  trac^e  this  matter  one  step  further,  in  the  constitution  of 
1867  (Declaration  of  Rights,  Art.  87),  all  distinction  between  religious 
sects  is  done  away  with  by  the  following  declaration  :     "  No  religious 


JUDAISM    AND    TIIK    MODERN    STATIC.  205 

test  ought  ever  to  be  required  as  a  qualification  for  auy  office  of  trust 
or  profit  in  this  state  other  than  a  declaration  of  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  God,  nor  shall  the  legislature  prescriiie  any  other  oath  of  oflice 
than  the  oath  prescribed  l)y  this  constitution." 

In  North  Carolina,  too,  the  Jews,  or  ratl)er  the  non-Christians, 
were  discriminated  against.  The  constitution  of  the  state  adopted  in 
1776  declared  that  "  no  person  who  shall  deny  the  being  of  God  or 
the  trutii  of  the  Protestant  religion  or  t!ie  divine  authority  either  of 
the  Old  or  New  Testaments  .  .  .  shall  be  capable  of  holding  any 
office  or  place  of  trust  or  profit  in  tlie  civil  department  within  this 
state."  In  the  year  1835  the  words  "  Christian  religion"  were  sub- 
stituted  for  "  Protestant  religion."  Tliis  removed  the  civil  disabilities 
of  the  Catholics  but  not  of  the  Jews.  No  further  step  was  taken  in 
this  measure  until  1861  and  1862,  during  the  rebellion,  when  Colonel 
Wm.  Johnston  proposed  in  the  constitutional  convention  the  removal 
of  the  Jewish  disabilities,  stating  that  he  "saw  Jewish  blood  and 
Christian  blood  spilt  on  the  same  battle-field,  running  of  tlie  same  hue 
and  commingling  with  each  other."  My  informant.  Rev.  S.  Mendels- 
sohn, of  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for 
these  facts,  writes  me  tliat  he  does  not  know  whether  this  amendment 
was  adopted,  but  that  all  the  enactments  of  this  convention  antl  all 
other  conventions  held  in  the  state  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
were  nullified  by  the  United  States  government.  I  find  tliat  it  was 
only  as  late  as  1868,  under  the  Reconstruction  regime,  that  the  civil 
disabilities  of  the  Jews  were  fully  and  finally  removed,  the  oath  to  be 
taken  on  the  assumption  of  office  being  as  follows  (Art.  VI,  sec.  4): 

"I, ,  do  solemnly  swear  (or  affirm)  that  I  will  support  and 

maintain  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States  and  tlie  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  North  Carolina  not  inconsistent  therewith,  and 
that  I  will  faithfully  discharge  the  duties  of  my  office,  so  help  me 
God;"  and  section  five  of  this  same  article  declares  that  only  such 
shall  be  disqualified  for  office  who  "shall  deny  the  existence  of  Al- 
mighty God." 

Others  of  the  thirteen  original  states  in  their  constitutions  adopted 
prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  in  1789, 
had  also  religious  tests  for  office,  but  these  were  for  the  most  part 
changed  shortly  after  the  establishment  of  the  federal  government. 
Thus  the  constitution  of  the  State  of  Delaware  of  1776  (Art.  22)  or- 
dains that  the  following  declaration  be  made  on  taking  office:  "I  do 
profess  faith  in  God  the  Father,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  oidy  son,  and 
in  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  blessed  for  evermore,  and  I  do  acknowl- 
edge the  holy  scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be  given  by 


266  STATE    AND    SOCIETY. 

diviue  inspiratioD  ;"  but  in  the  constitution  of  1792  (Art.  1,  sec.  2)  we 
read  that  "  no  religious  test  shall  be  required  as  a  qualification  to  any 
office  or  trust  under  this  state."  In  the  constitution  of  Massachusetts 
(Chap,  vi,  art.  1)  the  oath  of  office  included  the  statement,  "  I  do  de- 
clare that  I  believe  the  Christian  religion  and  have  a  firm  persuasiou 
of  its  trutli."  Tills  was  amended  in  1822  to  read,  "I  do  solemnly 
swear  that  I  will  bear  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  the  commonwealth 
of  Massachusetts  and  will  support  the  constitution  thereof;  so  help 
me  God." 

The  constitution  of  New  Jersey  of  1776  (Art.  19)  declared  that 
"  no  Protestant  inhabitant  of  this  colony  shall  be  denied  the  enjoy- 
ment of  any  civil  right  merely  ou  account  of  his  religious  principles, 
but  that  all  persons  professing  a  belief  in  the  faith  of  any  Protestant 
sect  .  .  .  shall  be  capable  of  being  elected  into  any  office  of 
profit  and  trust  .  .  .  ."  This  stood  until  1844,  when  the  follow- 
ing declaration  appears  (Art.  4):  "There  shall  be  no  establishment  of 
one  religious  sect  in  preference  to  another ;  no  religious  test  shall  be 
required  as  a  qualification  for  any  office  or  public  trust,  and  no  person 
shall  be  denied  the  enjoyment  of  any  civil  right  merely  on  account  of 
his  religious  principles." 

The  constitution  of  Pennsylvania  of  1776  (Sec.  10)  discriminated 
against  Jews  by  prescribing  the  following  oath  for  niembers  of  the 
House  of  Representatives:  "I  do  solemnly  believe  in  one  God,  the 
Creator  and  Governor  of  the  Universe,  the  Rewarder  of  the  good 
and  the  Punisher  of  the  wicked.  And  I  do  acknowledge  the  script- 
ures of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  to  be  given  by  divine  inspira- 
tion." But  the  constitution  of  1790  (Art.  9,  sec.  4)  declares  that  "  no 
person  who  acknowledges  the  being  of  a  God  and  a  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments  shall  on  account  of  his  religious  sentiments 
bo  disqualified  to  hold  any  office  or  place  of  trust  and  profit  under 
this  commonwealth."  The  constitution  of  South'  Carolina  of  1778 
(Art.  38)  declared  "The  Chiistian  Religion  is  deemed  and  is  hereby 
declared  to  be  the  established  religion  of  the  state,"  but  the  consti- 
tution of  1790  (Art.  8,  sec.  1)  states  tliat  "  the  free  exercise  and  en- 
joyment of  religious  profession  and  worship  without  discrimination  or 
preference,  shall  forever  hereafter  V)e  allowed  within  this  state  to  all 
mankind." 

The  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  state  of 
Vermont  iiad  to  make  the  following  declaration  (C^onstitution  of  1777, 
Chap.  2,  sec.  8):  "I  do  believe  in  one  God,  the  Creator  and  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Universe,  the  Rewarder  of  the  good  and  Punisher  of  the 
wicked  ;   I  do  acknowledge  the  scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 


JUDAISM    AND   THE   MODERN   STATE.  267 

ment  to  be  given  by  divine  inspiratiou  ami  own  and  profess  the 
Protestant  religion."  This  was  repealed  in  the  constitution  of  1786, 
but  omitted  in  that  of  17U3. 

Rhode  Ishuid,  Connecticut,  Virginia,  and  Georgia,  had  no  religious 
test  in  their  original  state  constitutions.  Tlie  newer  states,  admitted 
after  the  formation  of  the  government,  naturally  declare  expressly  in 
their  constitutions  agaiust  a  religious  test. 

The  latest  deliverance  on  our  subject  was  given  at  the  Congress  of 
Berlin  in  1878,  when  the  representatives  of  the  powers  of  Europe  made 
the  civil  and  political  emancipation  of  the  Jews  a  condition  of  the 
recognition  of  the  independence  of  Roumania.  Sad  to  say,  this  con- 
dition has  been  violated  by  that  government  and  the  lot  of  the  Jews 
in  that  land  is  very  sad. 

With  this  statement  I  close  the  necessarily  brief  review  of  the 
progress  and  attainment  of  Jewish  emancipation  under  the  legis 
of  the  modern  state.  In  lands  such  as  Russia  and  Morocco,  in 
which  the  principles  of  the  modern  state  have  found  no  foothold, 
neither  the  Jew  nor  Judaism  have  any  recognized  rights;  the  hor- 
rors of  Russian  and  Moroccan  inhumanity  against  the  Jewish  sub- 
jects are  still  too  fresh  and  vivid  in  the  minds  of  all  to  require  more 
than  a  mere  mention  here. 

For  the  modern  state,  then,  founded  upon  the  principles  of  the 
equal  rights  of  all  men,  mankind's  divisions  into  churches  and  re- 
ligious parties  have  no  existence.  As  for  Judaism's  attitude  to  the 
state,  I  have  already  outlined  it,  and  need  only  point  to  the  patriotic 
acts  of  Judaism's  confessors  in  every  land  in  time  of  war  and  in 
time  of  peace  to  show  how  fully  and  positively  tlie  Jews  have  proven, 
by  actions  that  indeed  speak  louder  than  words,  that  they  are  Jews 
in  religion  alone,  citizens  of  their  fatherland  wherever  it  may  be  iu 
every  thing  else,  that  their  faith  has  no  interests  that  are  at  vari- 
ance with  the  common  weal,  that  they  are  not  a  class  standing  apart, 
but  their  hearts  and  hopes  are  bound  up  with  every  thing  that  con- 
duces to  civic  advancement  and  their  country's  honor  and  political 
triumphs;  that  they  recognize  in  all  men  brethren  and  pray  for  the 
speedy  coming  of  the  day  when  all  the  world  over  religious  differ- 
ences will  have  no  weight  in  political  councils;  when  Jew,  Christian, 
Mohammedan,  agnostic  as  such  will  not  figure  in  the  deliberations  of 
civil  bodies  anywhere,  but  only  as  men.  This  is  the  political  philosophy 
of  the  modern  state  ;  this  is  the  teaching  of  Judaism  ;  the  two  are  in 
perfect  accord. 


^68  STATE    AND    SOCIETY. 


JUDAISM  A  RELIGION  AND  NOT  A  RACE. 

By  rabbi  a.  MOSES,  of  Louisvlile,  Ky. 


THE   ARYAN    RACE — THE   SEMITIC    RACE  —  THE   PURITY    OF   THE   JEW- 
ISH   RACE. 

Some  time  ago  an  officer  in  the  Austrian  army  called  a  Jewish 
physician  "an  impudent  Semite."  The  latter  retorted  and  called  the 
officer  "an  arrogant  Aryan."  A  bloody  duel  was  the  outcome  of  the 
altercation.  Tlie  two  men  slashed  one  another  to  vindicate  the  honor 
of  their  respective  race.  If  there  be  evil  powers  that  hover  between 
heaven  and  earth,  watching  the  doings  of  mortals,  and  rejoicing  in 
their  follies  and  crimes,  they  must  have  taken  a  fiendish  delight  in  the 
sight  of  Jew  and  Gentile  driven  by  the  figment  of  an  Aryan  and  Se- 
mitic race  to  spill  each  other's  blood.  There  was  precious  little  Aryan 
blood  in  the  race-proud  warrior,  and  the  doctor,  though  a  Jew,  was 
not  much  of  a  Semite.  There  is  no  Aryan  race  anywhere  in  exist- 
ence. And  the  Jews  can  certainly  not  lay  claim  to  being  pure  Semites. 
This  honor,  if  honor  it  be,  belongs  exclusively  to  the  Bedouins  of 
Arabia.  During  the  first  third  or  half  of  this  century  the  imagina- 
tion of  certain  famous  linguists  gave  birth  to  the  myth  of  a  great  and 
homogeneous  Aryan  race,  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  Basques 
in  Spain,  the  Magyras  in  Hungary,  the  Turks  and  the  Finns,  com- 
prised all  the  nations  of  Europe,  the  inhabitants  of  Northern  India,  of 
Persia  and  of  Armenia.  Because  all  those  nations  were  found  to 
speak  kindred  languages,  the  philologians,  with  pardonable  but  unsci- 
entific rashness,  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were  all  of  one 
blood,  of  one  race,  that  their  common  ancestors  must  have  one  day 
lived  somewhere  in  Asia  as  a  united  i)eopIe,  governed  by  the  same  laws 
and  institutions  and  worshiping  the  same  gods.  On  the  basis  of  this 
fiction  the  scholars  went  on  building  up  u  spiu'ious  science  of  a  com- 
mon primitive  Aryan  culture,  of  Aryan  religion  and  mythology,  of 
law  and  government,  of  their  racial  characteristics,  their  emotional 
and  intellectual  traits.  Imaginative  writers,  such  as  Max  Mueller, 
drew  charming  pictures  of  the  idyllic  life  which  his  reputed  Aryan 
ancestors,  the  forefathers  of  the  Hindoos,  the  Iranians,  the  Luthuani- 
ans,  the  Teutons  and  the  Sclavs  once  upon  a  lime  led  in  their  central- 


JUDAISM    A    RELIGION   AND    NOT    A    RACE.  269 

Asian  home,  dwelliiio;  together  almost  under  the  same  roof.  Ernest 
Renan,  with  his  all-knowing  retrospective  imagination,  did  most  to 
elaborate  into  a  consistent  system  the  luckless  legend  of  an  Aryan 
race,  perennially  opposed  in  its  innermost  nature,  in  its  habits  of 
thought  and  modes  of  feeling,  in  its  conception  of  nature  and  life,  to  a 
fictitious  Semitic  race,  embracing  the  ancient  Babylonians  and  Assyri- 
ans, the  Arameans  or  Syrians,  the  Hebrews,  with  their  kindred  the 
Ammonites,  the  Moabites  and  Edomites,  the  Phoenicians  and  Car- 
thaginians, all  the  inhabitants  of  Arabia,  and  largely  also  the  tribes  of 
Ethiopia.  He'  describes  the  Aryans  as  the  most  valiant,  the  noblest 
and  lordliest  of  races,  endowed  by  nature  with  a  rich  and  creative  im- 
agination, an  intellect  vigorous,  profound,  metaphysical,  rather  inclined 
to  mysticism,  and  possessing  constructive  political  powers  of  the  high- 
est order.  He  but  voices,  though  he  exaggerates,  the  views  of  the 
other  Aryomaniacs.  He  exalts  above  all  others  the  stock,  of  which 
he  believes  all  the  European  nations  to  be  the  living  representatives, 
he  glorifies  it  as  earth's  natural  born  aristocracy,  and  magnifies  it  as 
the  imperial  race  of  the  world,  destined  to  bear  sway  over  all  the 
children  of  men  by  the  grace  of  its  high  and  indestructible  native 
qualities.  How  did  Renan  and  the  whole  school,  of  which  he  was  the 
most  eloquent  exponent,  come  to  know  with  such  wonderful  exactness 
and  fullness  of  detail  all  the  emotional  and  artistic,  all  the  mental, 
moral  and  religious  characteristics  of  the  hypothetical  Aryan  race? 
By  a  simple  process  of  selection  and  combination  which  requires  no 
large  discourse  looking  before  and  after.  He  selected  the  finest  quali- 
ties of  the  noblest  Grecian  tribes,  as  displayed  in  the  season  of  their 
richest  flowering  and  fruit-bearing,  and  spoke  of  them  as  inborn  quali- 
ties of  the  whole  Aryan  race.  He  took  the  grandest  and  I'ipest 
achievements  of  the  Hellenic  genius  in  the  fields  of  poetry,  art  and 
science,  and  deduced  from  them  instinctive  tendencies  of  the  imagin- 
ary Aryan  race.  The  rare  capacity  of  the  Roman  people  for  military 
and  political  organization,  slowly  developed  under  favorable  conditions 
during  centuries  of  fierce  contest  and  growing  experience,  the  stnrdi- 
ness,  the  unyielding  tenacity,  the  undaunted  courage,  the  iron  will 
and  domineering  spirit  of  the  Roman  nation,  were  turned  by  a  mere 
slight  of  hand  into  innate  attributes  of  whole  Aryan  families.  What- 
soever things  good,  wdiatsoever  things  true,  whatsoever  things  beauti- 
ful and  great,  the  Italians  and  the  Spaniards,  the  Dutch,  the  l^iglish, 
the  French,  the  Germans  and  the  Americans  have  accomi)iisiifd  in 
course  of  many  ages  in  war  and  peace,  in  art,  poetry,  philosophy, 
science  and  commerce,  were  by  a  delusive  fancy  traced  back  to  hered- 
itary racial  powers  peculiar  to  the  fancied  Aryan  stock.     The  hymns 


270  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

of  the  Rigveda,  composed  by  successive  generations  of  swarthy  poets 
ou  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  are  spoken  of  with  comical  enthusiasm  as 
the  hymns  of  our  ancestors,  as  the  oldest  poems  of  our  race.  The 
pantheistic  speculations  of  the  Indian  thinkers,  and  the  refined  mys- 
ticism of  Persian  Sufism  are  claimed  no  less  than  the  ideal  philosophy 
of  Plato,  the  monumental  system  of  Aristotle,  the  epoch-making 
meditations  of  Descartes  and  Kant's  revolutionary  Critique  of  Pure 
Reason  as  emanations  of  the  Aryan  spirit. 

All  the  greatest  men  of  the  Occidental  world,  all  the  kings  of 
poetry  from  Homer  to  Shakespeare  and  down  to  Goethe,  the  Indian 
poet  Kalidasa,  Firdusi,  the  famous  poet  of  the  Persian  epic,  Shah 
Nameh,  the  immortal  master  of  art  from  Phidias  to  Canova,  the  most 
renowned  statesmen  from  Alexander  and  Ceesar  to  Charlemagne  and 
Napoleon,  the  most  celebrated  scientists  from  Archimedes  to  Newton 
and  Darwin,  were  compelled  to  yield  their  best  parts  in  order  to  make 
up  the  psychology  of  the  Aryan  race.  A  composite  photograph  was 
taken  of  the  supreme  men  of  India  and  Persia,  of  Hellas  and  Italy,  of 
Spain  and  Portugal,  of  Holland  and  England,  of  Germany  and 
America,  of  the  glorious  men  wdio  witliin  the  .space  of  nearly  three 
tliousand  years  appeared  at  long  intervals  in  the  sky  of  humanity. 
This  composite  photograph  looking  so  ideal,  so  beautiful,  was  declared 
to  be  the  trne  likeness  of  the  Aryan  race.  It  was  indeeil  ideal,  but 
absolutely  unreal,  the  fanciful  picture  of  a  fancied  race.  This  imag- 
inaiy  superior  and  aristocratic  race,  poetic,  artistic,  polytheistic,  philo- 
sophical, imperial  in  virtue  of  incredible  instincts,  finds  its  natural 
contrast  and  historical  antagonist  in  another  fictitious  race,  the  so-called 
Semites,  whom  the  omniscient  Renan,  with  his  usual  promptness  and 
recklessness  of  judgment,  brands  as  an  inferior  race.  Tlie  method  by 
which  the  most  famous  linguists,  with  the  adventurous  Renan  for 
their  spokesman,  managed  to  draw  a  pen-picture  of  the  emotional,  in- 
tellectural,  moral,  and  religious  nature  of  the  Semitic  race  corresponds 
to  that  adopted  in  delineating  the  character  of  the  Aryan  race,  and 
forms  one  of  the  most  discreditable  chapters  in  the  annals  of  modern 
scholarsiiip.  The  monotheism  of  Israel,  a  belief  in  one  only  God,  the 
maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  which  was  the  result  of  at  least  a  thousand 
years  of  moral  and  religions  development,  was  changed  by  Renan  with 
audacious  self-assurance  into  a  general  characteristic,  into  a  necessary 
mciutal  state  of  the  whole  race,  into  a  religious  sentiment  peculiar  to 
all  Semites  past  and  present.  In  the  opinion  of  Renan  and  his  numer- 
ous followers,  all  the  nations  regarded  as  members  of  the  Semitic  race, 
because  they  are  known  to  have  spoken  or  to  speak  the  Semitic  lan- 
guages, have  been  and    are  monotheists  by  an  invincible  necessity  of 


JUDAISM    A    RELIGION    AND   NOT    A    RACE.  271 

their  mental  constitutiou.  They  can  not  help  believing  in  one  God 
only.  Just  as  spider:?  weave  their  web,  as  bees  gather  honey  by  in- 
stinct, so  were  Semites  compelled  by  the  form  of  their  mind  to  believe 
in  and  to  worship  only  one  divinity.  The  Semitic  mind,  he  says,  is 
too  narrow,  too  unimaginative,  to  believe  in  more  than  one  God,  to 
conceive  of  more  than  one  divine  power  ruling  all  the  phenomena  of 
nature.  The  expansive  imagination  and  creative  intelligence  of  the 
Aryan  race  could  not  rest  content  in  so  narrow  a  faith,  so  beggarly  an 
idea  of  the  supreme  power.  They  peopled  the  universe  with  a  host  of 
self-conscious,  self-determined  divinities.  Every  natural  phenomenon 
was  personified,  and  represented  as  a  divine  individual.  Even  after 
the  Aryans  of  Europe  had  been  converted  by  persuasion  or  force  to  a 
Semitic  religion,  the  indestructible  tendencies  of  their  polytheistic  soul 
speedily  turned  the  barren  Semitic  idea  of  an  absolute  divine  unity  into 
the  richer  and  profounder  idea  of  a  divine  trinity.  The  belief  in  only 
one  God  is  good  enough  and  natural  enough  for  the  inferior  Semites. 
But  as  to  the  Aryans,  heaven  forbid  that  the}'  should  be  satisfied  with 
one  only  God  ruling  in  the  heavens  above  and  on  tiie  earth  beneath. 
However  hard  History  tried,  she  could  not  change  the  immutable  na- 
ture either  of  the  Aryan  or  of  the  Semite.  The  two  races  are  like  op- 
posite poles.  Some  sort  of  polytheism  is  in  the  blood,  the  feelings  and 
intellect  of  the  Aryan,  while  monotheism,  uncompromising,  fanatical, 
poor  in  ideal  contents,  is  bound  up  with  the  very  nature  of  the  Semite. 
The  chain  of  reasoning  by  which  he  and  other  Aryomaniacs  arrived  at 
this  startling  generalization  is  as  plain  as  it  is  delusive,  as  simple  as  it 
is  false.  Israel  glories  in  the  fact  that  it  has  given  the  religion  of 
monotheism  to  the  world.  But  did  not  the  people  of  Israel  belong  to 
the  inferior  Semitic  race?  How  should  the  spirit  of  originality  in  this 
one  particular  field,  in  the  province  of  religion,  have  departed  from 
the  great  creative  race,  the  standard-bearer  of  civilization  and  progress, 
the  chosen  Aryan  race,  and  come  to  manifest  itself  in  so  signal  a  man- 
ner in  the  midst  of  tlie  Semitic  Hebrews  ?  Does  it  not  seem  like  a 
perversion  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  history?  Starting  from  such 
false  premises,  only  one  answer  could  be  given  by  thinkers  who  believe 
in  blood,  instinct,  race,  inherited  tendencies,  as  the  cause  of  causes,  as 
an  all-sufficient  explanation  of  all  things  animate,  of  all  thing*  human. 
The  Semite  Israelites  were  believers  in  one  God  only,  because  they 
were  Semites.  All  Semites  are  born  monotheists,  just  as  it  is  the  na- 
ture of  sheep  to  grow  wool  and  bleat.  The  syllogism  is  perfect.  The 
Hebrews  were  Semites ;  hence  all  Semites  were  monotheists.  You 
ask  for  proofs ?  Proofs  shall  be  forthcoming.  Are  not  the  Semitic 
Arabs  monotheists?     Is  not  the  Semitic  East  monotheistic?     On  the 


272  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

other  hand,  the  whole  Aryan  Occident,  all  Europe,  is  Christian^ 
trinitarian.  Is  this  not  convincing  evidence?  What  if  history  pro- 
tests against  such  an  unwarranted  assumption,  and  is  indignant  at 
such  a  willful  perversion  of  her  facts,  at  such  reckless  falsification  of 
her  records!  What  if  every  page  of  history  bears  witness  to  the  fact 
that  the  so-called  Semitic  nations,  the  Babylonians,  the  Assyrians,  the 
Syrians,  the  Phoenicians,  and  the  rest  of  the  Canaanites  and  the  Arabs 
down  to  Mohammed's  time,  were  steeped  in  idolatry  the  must  abom- 
inable, believed  in  innumerable  gods,  male  and  female,  in  gods  of 
heaven  and  gods  of  earth,  gods  of  the  ssas  and  of  the  rivers,  in  moun- 
tain gods  and  forest  gods,  divinities  of  the  sun,  divinities  of  the  moon, 
divinities  of  the  stars,  divine  rulers  of  life  and  death  and  the  under- 
world ?  What  if  proofs  irrefragable  go  to  show  that  the  Israelites 
themselves  had  for  ages  been  rank  polytheists,  that  there  liad  been  as 
many  gods  in  Israel  as  there  were  cities  in  the  land,  that  it  required  a 
thousand  years  of  prophetic  teaching — nay,  that  the  nation  as  such 
liad  to  1)6  destroyed — before  the  leaven  of  heathenism  was  overcome, 
and  a  small  remnant  was  thoroughly  and  permanently  converted  to 
the  belief  of  one  God.  If  the  facts  contradict,  down  with  the  facts! 
Let  them  ])erish,  in  order  that  the  theory  of  Aryan  superiority  and 
Semitic  inferiority  may  live  and  prosper. 

The  Semites  are  all  born  monotheists,  instinctive  worshipers  of 
one  God.  This  is  the  first,  though  far  from  praiseworthy  character- 
istic of  the  race!  The  despots  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  are  known 
to  have  been  fierce  and  cruel  conquerors.  There  are  to  be  seen  on  the 
ancient  monuments  harrowing  scenes  representing  acts  of  cruelty  done 
by  the  ruthless  victors  upon  the  vanquislied.  King  David  treated  the 
concjuered  inhabitants  of  Rabbath  Amnion  in  a  manner  whicli,  to  our 
refined  humanity,  must  appear  exceedingly  inhuman.  What  infer- 
ence is  drawn  from  these  facts?  Why,  they  were  generalized  into  a 
race  quality  of  the  Semites,  and  renowned  writers  did  not  hesitate  to 
teach,  with  an  air  of  scientific  infallibility,  that  savage  cruelty  toward 
vanquished  foes  was  a  distinguishing  feature  in  the  character  of  the 
Semite  race.  And  what  a  glaring  contrast  such  Semitic  bloodthirsti- 
ness  is  made  to  form  to  the  gentleness  and  sweet  uses  of  humanity 
usually  displayed  by  Aryans  against  their  enemies!  Several  days 
after  lie  had  slain  I'atroclus  in  battle,  Achilles,  the  hero  of  the  Aryan 
Greeks,  tied  the  corpse  of  his  great  foe  to  his  cliaiiot  and  dragged  it, 
driving  furiously,  'round  and  'round  the  camp,  in  oidcr  to  appease  his 
wrathful  and  vengeful  heart.  Yet  no  one  ever  asserted  that  the 
savage  action  of  the  ideal  Greek  w^as  characteristic  of  the  whole  Aryan 
race.     Alexander  the   Great  destroyed  tlie   glorious   city  of  Corinth, 


JUDAISM    A    RELIGION    AND    NOT    A    RACK.  273 

one  of  the  centers  of  Hellenic  civilization,  and  sold  all  its  inhabitants 
into  slavery.  Yet  no  writer  ever  held  that  iu  so  doing  Alexander 
simply  acted  in  obedience  to  the  ferocious  instincts  of  the  Aryan  race. 
Great  Ctosar  one  day  ordered  a  whole  German  people,  some  sixty 
thousand  persons,  to  be  massacred  in  cold  blood,  sparing  neither  age 
nor  sex.  That  fearful  butchery  is  declared  by  historians  to  have  been 
dictated  by  motives  of  far-seeing  policy.  But  the  Aryan  race  is  not 
dragged  in  to  stand  god-ftither  to  it.  Was  it  by  virtue  of  his  brutal 
Aryan  nature  that  Titus  caused  over  a  hundred  thousand  Jewish  war- 
riors to  fight  with  wild  beasts  in  the  arena?  Hadrian  hunting 
the  conquered  Jews  i>f  Cyprus  and  other  lands  like  wild  beasts, 
is  not  declared  by  historians  to  have  acted  out  the  inhuman  dis- 
position of  his  whole  race.  Historians  have  diverse'  kinds  of 
judgment  for  what  they  regard  as  the  Aryan  and  for  what  they 
designate  as  the  Semitic  race.  Urged  and  favored  by  their  geo- 
graphical position,  the  ancient  Phoenicians  were  enterprising  and 
shrewd  merchants.  Ages  of  remorseless  exclusion  and  restriction 
have  compelled  the  Jews  after  their  dispersion  to  eke  out  a  livelihood 
by  trade.  What  follows?  Why,  the  Semites  of  all  lands  and  all 
times  are  born  traders  and  money-getters.  The  Babylonians  and 
Canaauites  are  known  to  have  been  lascivious  in  their  religious  prac- 
tices and  sensual  iu  their  private  conduct.  Forthwith  the  conclusion 
was  reached,  that  the  whole  Semitic  race  was  and  is  exceedingly 
sensual  by  nature.  The  peculiar  characteristics  of  the  Bedouin  tribes 
of  Arabia  have  been  worked  as  a  rich  mine  of  adjectives,  to  be  ap- 
plied indiscriminately  to  all  the  people  speaking  Semitic  tongues. 
The  Bedouin  is  avaricious  and  rapacious,  both  a  miser  and  a  spend- 
thrift accordiuc:  to  his  varviug  moods.  So  are  all  the  Semites.  He 
is  unscrupulous  in  his  dealings,  lacking  in  truthfulness,  unreliable ; 
faithful  to  his  guests  as  long  as  they  are  in  his  tent,  treacherous  as 
soon  as  they  have  left  it.  In  all  these  respects,  the  modern  Bedouin 
is  declared  to  be  the  typical  Semite.  The  Bedouin  is  in  his  usual  de- 
meanor calm  and  dignified,  but  when  aroused,  he  is  capable  of  the 
wildest  outbursts  of  uncontrollable  passion.  He  is  revengeful  and 
cruel.  Lo  and  behold,  they  cry,  the  true  sou  of  Shem.  He  dislikes 
physical  labor,  and  wishes  to  earn  his  bread  with  as  little  muscular  ex- 
ertion as  possible.  He  is  of  migratory  habits.  He  is  superstitious, 
fanatical ;  his  religion  is  mainly  one  of  fear.  In  all  these  points  he 
is  held  up  as  the  true  representative  of  the  Semitic  race.  In  this 
curious  way  there  has  been  formed  a  complete,  but  most  incongruous, 
picture  of  the  Semites.  Wiiat  a  strange  animal  the  hypothetical 
18 


274  STATE    AND    SOCIETY. 

Semite  is  made  to  be.  What  an  incredible  creature  he  is,  made  up 
of  irreconcilable  contradictions.  He  is  moved  by  the  invisible  wires 
of  instinct,  to  utter  forth  with  a  prophet's  tongue  the  deepest  truths 
regarding  God  and  the  moral  dignit}'  of  man,  such  as  the  wisest  of 
the  wise  among  the  Aryans  did  not  dream  of,  and  at  the  same  time  he 
adores  vile  and  vicious  gods,  aud  pays  homage  to  them  in  ways  un- 
mentionably  abominable.  He  preaches  the  gospel  of  love  and  mercy, 
of  universal  brotherhood  and  broadest  humanity  in  Jerusalem,  and  in 
Babylon  and  Tyre  he  is  a  blood-thirsty  despot. 

In  a  word,  he  is  all  things  to  all  men  and  all  times.  Yet  he 
does  not  act  out.  his  part  in  the  free  play  of  spontaneous  development 
in  harmony  with  his  changing  surroundings,  but  lie  is  compelled  to 
be  what  he  is,  and  to  do  whatever  he  does  by  the  fatality  of  his  im- 
mutable racial  nature!  Through  all  times  and  all  lands  he  forms  by 
the  indistriictible  laws  of  his  being  an  enduring  contrast  to  the  Aryan. 
Tliey  have  met  in  thousands  of  places  and  times.  They  have  ex- 
changed innnmerable  services,  they  have  adopted  from  one  another 
the  arts  of  civilization  and  learned  one  another's  wisdom  of  life. 
But  they  have  never  blended.  There  is  a  natural  gulf  of  separation 
between  them.  There  is  a  deep-seated  mutual  sympathy  between  the 
Aryan  and  the  Semitic  race  !  Many  scholars  have  sinned  against  the 
holy  spirit  of  history  and  humanity  by  giving  expi*essions  to  such  ])er- 
verted  and  mischievous  views.  But  it  was  chiefly  the  witchcraft  ot 
Renan's  marvelous  powers  as  a  writer  that  gave  currency  to  those  per- 
nicious theories  of  race,  and  made  them  popular  throughout  Europe 
aud  America  with  the  educated  and  half-educated,  from  whom  they 
gradually  percolated  down  to  the  masses.  Without  knowing  it,  with- 
out willing  it,  Ilenan  was  in  a  sense  the  intellectual  father  of  modern 
anti-Semitisn).  He  with  otho's  sowed  the  ])oisonous  seed  of  the  bale- 
ful theory  regarding  the  Semitic  race  and  its  eternal  antagonism  to 
the  Aryan  race,  from  which  in  course  of  a  few  decades  the  ujjas  tree 
of  anti-Semitism  has  grown,  to  their  own  dismay  and  disgust.  The 
very  term  anti-Semitism  bears  the  birthmaik  of  its  origin  in  the  lucu- 
brations of  })hilosophers.  Linguists  and  historians  gave  birth  to  the 
idea  of  Semitism  ;  knavish  or  insane  agitators  tacked  on  to  it  tlieir 
malignant  "  anti."  Strange  fate  aud  nemesis  that  Renan,  tlie  gentlest 
and  sweetest  tempered  of  men,  as  true  a  lover  of  his  kind  as  ever 
lived,  .should  have  fathered  a  theory,  the  i)ractical  consc(juences  of 
which  became  the  shame  and  curse  of  our  century.  Like  many  wise 
men  before  him,  he  did  not  give  heed  to  his  words,  and  did  not  cal- 
culate the  effect  which  his  theory  might  have  on  natures  in  which  the 
instinct  and  ideas  of  the  savage  lay  dormant,  and  which  only  required 


JUDAISM    A    RELIGION    AND    NOT    A    RACE.  275 

the  right   word   to   be   awakened  to  full    life.      With  savages  blood 
kinship  is  every  thing.     Right  and  wrong,  love  and  hate  are  derived 
exclusively   from    the   bonds   of  race.      For   thousands   of  years  the 
prophets  of  Israel   and  their  disciples  tried  to   substitute   the  moral 
dignity  of  man  and  the  brotherhood  of  all   men   f  )r  the  brutal  con- 
ception of  descent  and  race.     Barely  had  these  supreme  ideas  of  hu- 
manity begun  to  make  a  deeper  impression  and  to  translate  themselves 
into  a  humanizing  practice,  when  leading  scholars  came  up  with  their 
theories  of  an  Aryan  race,  and  a  Semitic  race,  drawing  hard  and  fast 
lines  of  separation  between  these  two  races,  and  tracing  all  the  grand- 
est  achievements   of  tiie   human    mind   back    to   racial   qualities,  to 
hereditary  instincts  and  tendencies.     The  fanaticism  of  nationalism  in 
our  days  and  the  still  fiercer  fanaticism  of  race  is  largely  due  to  the 
influence  of  such  teachings.     Since  the  Jews  are  Semites  and  we  are 
Aryans,  the  anti-Semites  say,  and  since  Semites  and  Aryans  are  for- 
ever separated  from    one  another  by  their  physical  and  also  by  their 
moral  and  emotional  constitution,  the  Jews  are  and  forever  will  remain 
strangers  in   our  midst,  aliens   that  can   not  be  assimilated  with  us. 
And  since  the  Semites  are  an  inferior  race,  their  })resence  in  our  midst 
is  a  perpetual  danger  to  our  higher  Aryan  life  and  character. 

Fortunately,  a  deeper  and  more  conscientious  research,  a  science 
based  on  fact  and  not  on  fancies,  has  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen 
years  begun  to  deal  staggering  blows  to  the  ill-starred  fiction  of  an 
Aryan  and  a  Semitic  race,  and  bids  fair  to  soon  drive  it  entirely  from 
the  temple  of  knowledge  and  rob  it  of  all  power  to  afl^ect  the  view  of 
men  for  evil.  Certain  eminent  scholars,  foremost  among  them  the 
distinguished  French  anthropologist  Broca,  were  not  dazzled  by  the 
splendor  of  the  Aryan  theory,  and  asked  themselves  in  sober  earnest- 
ness, what  evidence  there  was  for  assuming  that  nearly  all  the  nations 
of  Europe  and  many  peoi)le  of  Asia  form  one  vast  homogeneous  race. 
True,  the  nations  in  question  do  speak  languages  which  are  closely  re- 
lated to  one  another,  and  may  in  a  sense  be  regarded  as  but  widely 
divergent  dialects  of  one  common  speech.  But  does  community  of 
language  prove  community  of  race? 

There  are  eight  million  negroes  in  the  United  States  and  several 
more  millions  in  the  West  Indies  who  speak  English,  the  language  of 
the  New  Englandfers,  the  language  of  Gladstone  and  Tennyson.  Will 
any  one  contend  that  the  blood  of  Washington  and  Cromwell  rolls  in 
the  veins  of  the  South  Carolina  blacks?  The  Spaniards,  the  Portu- 
guese and  the  French  speak  Latin  tongues,  yet  there  is  scarcely  a 
trace  of  Roman  blood  in  these  nations.  The  Mexicans  speak  Spanish, 
a  Latin   dialect.     Still,  of  pure  Spaniards  there   is  but  a  dwindling 


276  STATE    AND    SOCIETY. 

number  in  Mexico.  The  overwhelming  mass  of  the  natives  are  of 
Aztec  blood.  The  present  inhabitants  of  Greece  are  largely  a  Slavonic 
race,  which  in  the  eighth  century  occupied  the  lands  and  learned  the 
speech  of  the  Greeks.  The  Bulgarians  speak  a  Slavonic  language,  but 
they  belong  to  the  Turkish  race.  The  Arabic  language  is  spoken  to- 
day by  all  the  Egyptians,  the  lineal  descendants  of  the  Hamitic  pyra- 
mid builders,  by  the  Berbers  and  Rabyls  of  Algiers,  Tunis,  Ti-ipoli  and 
Morocco,  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Lybians  and  Mauritauians. 
By  adopting  the  speech  of  the  Bedouins  they  did  not  exchange  their 
blood  for  that  of  the  Arabs.  The  Arabic  has  killed  off  all  the  native 
languages  of  Asia  Minor,  of  Mesopotamia,  Syria  and  Palestine.  But 
in  their  racial  features  the  populations  of  those  countries  have  con- 
tinued substantially  what  they  were  before  the  Arab  conqueror  had  set 
foot  there.  The  speech  of  Tunis  has  been  in  turn  Nuraidiau,  Plioeni- 
cian,  Latin,  Vandal  and  Arabic.  Tlie  inhabitants  of  Southern  Ger- 
many speak  German  ;  but,  taken  as  a  whole,  they  belong  to  the  Celtic 
stock.  They  exchanged  their  Celtic  speech  for  German  within  historic 
times. 

Instances  too  numerous  to  mention  could  be  adduced  from  every 
part  of  the  inhabited  earth  to  prove  that,  under  certain  conditions, 
there  is  a  tendency  in  language  to  spread  from  people  to  people. 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  French,  German,  Arabic,  and  above  all,  English, 
are  steadily  invading  new  territories,  occupied  by  races  physically  and 
mentally  the  most  varied.  Such  causes  as  conquest,  slavery,  the  neces- 
sities of  commercial  intercourse  and  religious  propaganda  co-operate  to 
give  to  certain  languages  dominion  over  vast  areas  and  over  multitudi- 
nous tribes  of  men  wholly  unrelated  to  the  people  whose  speech  they 
have  come  to  adopt.  What  has  taken  place  within  historical  times, 
what  is  happening  before  our  very  eyes,  has,  under  the  operation  of  the 
same  causes,  doubtless  been  going  on  in  pre-historic  ages.  One  such 
universal  language,  split  up  int«j  numerous  branches,  is  the  Aryan 
speech,  which  is  spoken  by  about  six  hundred  millions  of  human  be- 
ings througli  the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe,  in  northern  Iridia  and 
all  Persian  lands,  in  the  south  of  Africa,  and  in  the  two  Americas  and 
Australia.  Many,  many  thousand  years  ago,  in  the  dim  past  of  man- 
kind, it  originated  somewhere  in  Europe,  but  not  in  Asia,  in  the  midst 
of  a  people  which  scholars  are  agreed  to  call  the  Aryans.  It  must  have 
been  a  masterful  peo{)le,  since,  like  the  English,  the  Spaniards  and 
Arabs  of  these  latter  centuries,  they  imparted  tlieir  own  speech,  be  it 
by  conquest  or  by  the  powers  and  arts  of  a  higher  civilization,  to  the 
various  distinct  races  which  inliabitcd  and  still  inhabit  P^uropc. 

Which  of  the  modern  European  nations  may  be  regarded  as  the 


JUDAISM    A    RELIGION    AND    NOT    A    RACK.  277 

descendant  of  the  original  and  true  Aryans?  jNIo^t  prohaUly  none. 
The  original  Aryans  very  likely  mingled  and  blended  with  the  eon- 
<jiiered  alien  stocks,  and  disappearing  as  a  distinct  race,  left  only  their 
language  behind  tbein  as  tlie  record  of  their  power  and  for-reaohiug 
influence.  There  exists  an  Aryan  language,  but  no  Aryan  race  in 
Europe.  The  population  of  that  continent  and  of  other  continents 
settled  by  European  colonists,  consists  of  four  distinct  and  easily 
recognizable  races.  Any  man  with  an  observant  eye  can,  in  a  large 
{isseniblage  of  Europeans  or  Americans,  readily  enough  distinguish 
-extremely  divergent  types,  being  the  living  representations  of  tlie  sev- 
eral races  which  have  occupied  Europe  from  time  immemorial.  Here 
you  see  a  man  small  in  stature,  of  slender  build,  swarthy  of  com- 
plexion, with  black  eyes  and  black  hair.  His  head  is  long,  his  fore- 
head narrow  and  nearly  perpendicular.  He  is  either  a  Welshman 
from  Dembiashire  or  an  Irishman  from  Kerrv,  Donegal  or  Galwav. 
Or  you  may  discover  that  he  or  his  ancestors  came  from  the  Basque 
provinces  of  Spain.  But  it  is  just  as  probable  that  he  hails  from  the 
island  of  Corsica.  He  belongs  to  the  Iberian  race.  The  Berbers,  of 
northern  Africa,  and  the  Guanches,  of  Teneriffe  and  the  Canary 
Islands,  are  his  close  racial  kinsmen.  The  bones  of  his  remote  an- 
cestors are  found  in  sepulchral  caves  in  England,  France,  Corsica  and 
other  paits  of  Europe.  Next  to  your  Iberian  you  may  see  another 
small,  dark-complexioned  man  with  black  hair  and  black  eyes.  He  too 
has  a  straight  f  )rehead.  And  yet  he  belongs  to  quite  a  different  race. 
His  head  is  extremely  short.  If  you  inquire  you  are  sure  to  learn  that 
he  or  his  forefathers  came  from  central  France,  and  more  specifically 
where  the  Auvergnats  dwell.  Or  he  will  tell  you  that  he  is  a  Savoyard 
or  a  Swiss.  The  skeletons  of  his  savage  ancestors  are  found  in  Belirian 
caves  and  in  the  round  barrows  of  central  France.  Though  they  speak 
Fi-ench  or  German,  they  are  as  to  their  race  the  brothers  of  the  Lap- 
landers. They  and  the  Lapps  have,  of  all  existing  races,  the  shortest 
heads.  They  resemble  one  another  in  their  swarthy  complexion,  their 
black  hair  and  eyes.  The  head  of  the  Auvergnats  and  Lapps  is  alike 
abnormally  narrow  across  the  cheek  bones  and  wide  at  the  temples. 
They  belong  to  the  Ligurian  race,  which  once  inhabited  large  parts  of 
Italy. 

Besides  those  representatives  of  these  Iberian  and  Ligurian  races, 
you  may  notice, "in  any  large  gathering  in  American  cities,  a  number 
of  tall  men  with  blue  eyes  and  blonde  hair  and  a  white  skin  and  some- 
what projecting  jaws.  They  have  very  long  heads.  You  will,  at  a 
glance,  recognize  them  as  Swedes  or  Frisians  or  North  Germans  of 
the  fair  type.     They  belong  to  the  Scandinavian  race.     The  bones  of 


278  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

their  ancestors  are  found  in  numerous  graves  in  the  south-west  of  Ger- 
many, in  Holland  and  Sweden,  in  Burgundy  and  many  other  parts  of 
Europe.  These  primitive  Teutons  were  the  oldest  inhabitants  of 
Europe.  They  were  muscular,  athletic  and  of  great  stature.  They 
were  nomad  liunters,  who  sheltered  themselves  in  caves,  but  Avere 
without  fixed  abodes  or  even  any  sepulchers.  These  savages  were  the 
direct  forefathers  of  the  Germans  and  Englishmen  who  represent  the 
pure  Scandinavian  type. 

Besides  those  three  races,  the  Iberian,  the  Ligurian,  and  the 
Scandinavian,  there  lives  in  Europe  and  in  many  other  parts  of  the 
world  a  numerous  race,  the  Celtic.  The  living  representatives  of  this 
race  are  like  their  pre-historic  forefathers,  men  of  tall  stature,  with 
light  eyes  and  yellowish  red  or  brownish  red  hair.  Tiiey  have  long 
and  prominent  jaws  and  florid  faces.  They  are  marked  off  from  the 
Scandinavian  race  mainly  by  the  fact  that  they  are  brachycephalic  or 
short-headed.  The  great  mass  of  the  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  are 
the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Celtic  Britons.  The  other  element 
which  has  entered  into  the  composition  of  the  British  people,  are  the 
dark-skinned  Iberians  and,  to  a  certain  extent  also,  the  Teutonic 
Anglo-Saxons.  The  fiction  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  race  is  one  of  those 
delusions  which  the-pride  of  the  English  and  the  American  hugs  to  its 
heart.  They  speak  with  unbearable  vanity  of  the  noble,  glorious,  in- 
vincible, creative,  liberty-loving  Anglo-Saxon  race  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  In  listening  to  the  Fourth-of-July  spread-eagle  eloquence 
on  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  one  would  imagine  that  every  American  and 
every  Englishman  had  nothing  but  the  purest  blood  of  the  purest- 
blooded  Anglo-Saxon  invaders  in  his  veins.  But  in  reality  the  present 
Americans  are  a  mixture  of  all  the  European  races.  And  even  the 
English  and  their  purest  descendants  in  America  have  at  best  but  a 
streak  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  to  boast  of.  Only  a  number  of  noble 
families  in  England  may  lay  claim  to  being  largely  the  off-spring  .of 
the  invading  Anglo-Saxons.  But  the  English  as  a  mass  are  Celts  and 
Iberians.  For  even  the  Danes,  who  settled  in  certain  [larts  of  Eng- 
land, are  like  the  Danes  of  Dcnnuirk  itself,  no  Teutons,  no  genuine 
Scandinavians,  but  teutonized  Celts,  as  is  evidoncetl  by  their  racial 
characteristics,  chiefcst  among  which  is  their  l)eing  short-headed,  in- 
stead of  long-headed,  like  the  true  Scandinavians.  The  same  short- 
headed  Celtic  race  inhabited  as  Gauls  and  Celts  large  provinces  of 
France.  The  French  people  thus  consist  of  a  mixture  of  Iberians, 
Ligurians,  and  Celts,  witii  a  sprinkling  of  Teutons.  The  present 
Spanish  people  is  composed  of  Iberians  and  Celts,  and  in  a  measure, 
also,  of  I'lKciiicians  and  Jews.     The  south  of  Gcnnanv  as  far  north  as 


JUDAISM   A    RELIGION    AND    NOT   A    RACE,  279 

the  Teutoblirger  Wald,  the  Thiiriugeu  Wakl,  and  the  Rieseugebirge 
is  in  the  main  Celtic  in  race,  thougli  German  in  speecii.  The  Swiss 
people,  whose  ancestors  erected  pile  dwellings  around  the  Swiss  lakes, 
belong,  together  with  the  people  of  Northern  Italy,  to  the  same  Celtic 
race,  with  a  large  mixture  of  Etruscan  and  other  blood.  The  southern 
Italians  are  of  quite  a  different  race.  All  the  nations  of  Slavic  speech,  ex- 
cept the  great  Russians  or  the  Russians  proper,  are  members  of  the  same 
far-spreading  race.  They  have  short  heads,  light  hair,  and  light  eyes. 
Yet  let  not  the  Celts  of  France  and  England  believe  and  boast  that 
they  represent  the  genuine  high-born  Aryan  race.  For  the  despised 
tribes  of  Siberia,  the  barbarous  Fiuuo-Tartaric  tribes,  that  speak 
Turkic  languages,  belong  to  the  same  aristocratic  race.  All  of  them 
are  short-headed.  Most  of  them  have  blue  eyes  and  flaxen  or  red 
hair.  The  Turcomans  are  usually  blonde.  The  heads  of  the  Mon- 
gols are  precisely  like  those  of  the  ancestors  of  the  short-headed 
English. 

All  of  the  foregoing  details  will  suffice  to  convince  the  most 
skeptical  mind  that  the  belief  in  a  close  racial  kinship  between  all  the 
Aryan-speaking  nations  is  a  mere  fiction  refuted  by  incontrovertible 
facts.  There  exists  an  Aryan  language,  but  no  Aryan  race.  And  as 
the  fiction  of  an  Aryan  race  has  in  the  light  of  careful  inquiry  van- 
ished like  a  mist,  so  has  the  myth  of  a  Semitic  race  recently  been 
condemned  by  the  spirit  of  true  knowledge  and  made  to  pass  into  the 
limbo  of  exploded  delusions.  Eight  nations,  the  Babylonians,  the 
Assyrians,  the  Hebrews,  the  southern  Arabs  or  Sabaeans,  the  Phanii- 
cians,  the  Armenians,  the  Abyssiuiaus,  and  the  Arabs  proper,  are  known 
to  have  spoken  or  siill  to  speak  languages  so  closely  related  that  they 
mav  be  regarded  as  merely  dialects  of  one  language.  In  their  vocab- 
ulary,  in  their  grammatical  structure,  and  above  all  in  the  law  that 
every  root  must  consist  of  three  consonants,  they  form  among  them- 
selves the  most  intimate  unity  and  stand  in  striking  contrast  to  all 
other  languages.  From  this  community  of  speech,  the  deduction  has 
been  made  that  all  the  above-mentioned  nations  belonged  to  the  same 
race,  the  Semitic  race.  But  the  fads  brought  out  by  the  most  search- 
ing investigations  of  the  foremost  anthropologists  of  our  time  flatly 
contradict  this  assumption.  Sixty  thousand  heads  or  skulls  belono-insr 
to  those  various  nations  have  been  examined  with  circle  and  tape- 
measure,  and  the  result  has  been  "  not  unity  of  race,  but  a  bewildering 
variety  of  racial  characteristics."  Only  the  Bedouins  of  Arabia  form 
a  surprising  exception.  They  alone  can  be  regarded  as  a  physically 
homogeneous  race,  among  whom  the  variations  are  reduced  almost  to 
a  minimum.     Just  as  their  speech,  though  in  a  literary  sense  two  thou- 


280  STATE    AND    SOCIKTY. 

saud  years  younger  lliaii  Babylonia,  has,  with  wonderful  te'uacity,  pre- 
served the  oldest  and  fullest  forms  of  the  original  Semitic  languages, 
so  do  they  in  their  physical  qualities  represent  the  genuine  Semitic  race 
in  almost  absolute  purity.  They  have  invariably  long  and  narrow 
heads.  As  such,  as  a  people  with  long  and  narrowed  heads,  they  ap- 
pear depicted  on  numerous  ancient  monuments  of  Egypt.  This  goes 
to  prove  that  the  Bedouins  of  to-day  are  the  lineal  and  unmodified  de- 
scendants of  the  primitive  inhabitants  of  Arabia.  These  Arabs  are 
without  exception  of  a  dark  complexion  with  i)hick  eyes  and  black 
hair.  But,  what  is  most  to  be  notetl  is  the  fact  that  the  Arabs  have 
sliort  and  small  noses  whicli  are  hardly  curved  at  all.  They  form  iu 
every  respect  a  striking  contrast  to  what  the  vulgar  regard  as  the 
typical  curved  Jewish  nose.  The  physical,  t-raits  of  these  genuine  and 
unmixed  Semites  seem  to  connect  them  in  some  as  yet  unaccountable 
way,  with  the  long-headed  and  dark-skinned  Iberian  nice,  which,  in 
prehistoric-times,  occupied  England  and  many  other  parts  of  Europe. 
Which  of  the  so-called  Semitic  nations,  living  or  departed,  does 
or  did,  in  their  racial  characteristics,  most  closely  resemble  these  pure 
Arabs?  Only  the  ancient  Phoenicians  can  be  looked  upon  as  true 
Semites,  as  the  full  brothers  of  the  Arabs.  Many  Ph(jenician  skulls 
have  been  most  carefully  examined  by  eminent  anthropologists,  and 
bear  out  the  testimony  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids,  on  which  Phoeni- 
cians are  represented  as  pronounced  long-heads,  and  otherwise  showing 
the  distinguishing  marks  of  the  pure  Semitic  or  unmixed  Arabic 
stock.  Now,  what  has  anthropology,  after  years  of  most  conscientious 
searching,  after  collating  and  comparing  many  thousands  of  facts,  as- 
certained regarding  the  Hebrews  and  Syrians,  both  of  ancient  times 
and  of  the  ])resentday?  Are  the  Syrians,  are  the  Jews  pure  Semites, 
craven  largely  Semitic?  There  are  numerous  and  lifelike  representa- 
tions of  Hebrews  and  Syrians  on  tiie  niouuinents  of  aucient  Egypt. 
Those  carefully-drawn  ])ictures  of  the  Egyptian  artists  of  Hebrews 
and  Syrians  tally  to  perfection  with  the  observations  made  by  modern 
investigators  on  Syrians  and  Jews.  And  what  do  we  learn  from  both 
these  reliable  sources  of  information?  Only  five  per  cent  of  the  Syri- 
ans and  the  Jews  are  found  to  be  true  long-heads,  and  to  bear  the 
other  distinctive  features  of  the  genuine  Semites.  Stranger  still,  fully 
eleven  per  cent  of  the  Jews  and  Syrians  have  blue  eyes  and  blonde 
hair,  and  display  the  other  characteristics  of  the  Scandinavian  and  the 
fair  North  Germans.  No  less  tlian  fifty  per  cent  arc  veritable  short- 
heads,  and  conse<]uently  do  not  i)elong  to  the  Semitic  race.  Of  these 
a  good  many  are  the  happy  possessors  of  so-called  typical  Jewish 
noses.     How  come  there  to  be  eleven  per  cent  blue-eyed  and  blonde- 


JUDAISM   A   RELIGION    AND    NOT    A    KACE.  281 

haired  genuine  Aryans  among  the  Jews  and  the  Syrians?  Fortunately 
the  ancient  Egyptians  have  preserved  for  us  on  their  imperishable 
monuments  a  clear  and  decisive  answer  to  this  important  query.  The 
Amorites,  one  of  the  seven  nations  that  inliabited  Palestine  before  and 
after  the  invasion  of  the  Israelites,  are  depicted  on  those  monuments 
as  tall,  white-skinned,  blue-eyed  and  blonde-haired  men.  These  Amor- 
ites are  called  in  Egyptian  Tamehu,  the  people  of  the  North  laud. 
These  Tamehu  or  Northmen  are  described  by  the  Egyptian  writers  as 
white  savages,  who  were  dressed  in  skins  and,  in  Indian  fashion, 
adorned  their  heads  with  feathers.  It  is  certainly  no  disgrace  to  the 
blue  eyed  and  blonde-haired  among  the  English,  the  Americans  and 
Germans,  that  their  ancestors  were  living  in  Europe,  in  North  Africa 
and  Palestine,  as  savages  long  after  the  Babylonians  and  Egyptians 
had  reared  the  grand  edifice  of  their  civilization,  that  their  fire-fathers 
were  dressed  in  skins  and  dwelt  in  caves  at  the  time  Moses  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  kingdom  of  righteousness  and  humaniiy.  Nor 
are  we  Jews  specially  proud  of  the  fact  that  a  good  deal  of  the  blue 
blood  of  the  blue-eyed  Aryans  is  rolling  in  our  veins,  almost  as  much 
of  it  as  is  to  be  f)und  in  Southern  Germany,  in  many  parts  of  Eng- 
land and  in  most  parts  of  America.  We  only  wish  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  they  who  pride  themselves  on  being  Aryans  did  not 
receive  a  charter  from  nature,  to  be  exclusive  standard-bearers  of  civ- 
ilization and  the  privileged  creators  of  the  arts  and  the  wisdom  of  a 
higher  life.  At  the  same  time  we  desire  to  point  to  the  fact  that  we 
Jews  are  after  all,  by  the  ties  of  blood,  second  or  third  cousins  to  the 
very  people  who,  as  Aryans,  regard  us  as  Semitic  aliens. 

But  whence  do  the  fifty  per  cent  short-heads  among  the  Jews  and 
Syrians  come,  who  are  evidently  no  Semites?  Prof.  Felix  von  Luschan, 
whose  data  I  am  freely  using  and  whose  lines  of  reasoning  I  am  close^'^ 
following  in  this  lecture,  has,  in  a  paper  recently  read  before  the  Ger- 
man Anthropological  Society,  given  a  satisfactory  solution  to  this  great 
problem.  The  fifty  per  cent  of  the  Syrians  and  Jews  that  have  short 
heads,  dark  eyes,  and  dark  hair  are  the  descendants  of  the  once  great, 
very  numerous,  and  powerful  Hittites,  one  of  the  seven  nations  found 
by  the  Semitic  Israelites  when  they  conquered  Canaan.  The  Hittites 
belonged  to  the  wide-spread  race  called  by  Luschan  the  Armenoid,  by 
Hommel  the  Alarodian  stock.  The  modern  Armenians  are  the  purest 
representatives  of  that  race.  The  Armenians  have  short  heads,  dark 
eyes,  dark  hair,  and  the  most  pronounced  typical  Jewish  noses.  They 
resemble  in  every  respect  the  ancient  Hittites,  as  represented  on  nu- 
merous Hittite  monuments.  The  same  race  forms  the  main  stock  of 
the  population  of  Asia  Minor.     Most  of  the  Greeks  and  Turks  bear 


282  STATE   AND   SOCIETY, 

the  features  of  that  race.  The  aucieut  Pehisgians,  the  aboriginal  in- 
habitauts  of  Greece,  were  a  branch  of  the  same  race.  The  hitter, 
again,  are  very  probably  identical  with  the  Ligurians,  whose  desceud- 
auts  form  the  bulk  of  the  population  of  Southern  Italy,  and  make  up 
a  very  large  part  of  the  French  and  Swiss. 

The  result  of  the  foregoing  discussion  is :     The  so-called  Aryans 
consist  of  four  distinct  races,  the  Semites  do  by  no  means  form  a  racial 
unit,  and  lastly,  we  Jews  are  far  from  being  a  pure  race.     On  the  con- 
trary, we  are  a  very  mixed  race.     Three  elements  have  entered  into 
the  composition   of  the  Jewish    people :     The  true  Semitic  race,  the 
blue-eyed,  or,  if  you  choose,  the  Aryan  Aramorites,  and  the  Hitiites, 
have   mixed  their  blood   to  produce  the  Jewish  or  Israelitish   people. 
The  Aryan  Amorites  and  the  Armenian  Hittites  were  turned  into  Is- 
raelites, into  worshipers  of  Yahve  and   followers  of  Moses,  by  a  small 
but    masterful    Semitic    tribe,    the    Bene   Israel.     Many  a   Jew   will 
doubtless  groan  in  spirit  or  be  filled  with   indignation   on  being  told 
that  he  shall  no  longer  vaingloriously  boast  of  being  a  member  of  the 
purest  race  on  earth !     "  What  are  we  then,"  many  of  these  race-Jews 
will  cry,  "  if  we  are  not  unmixed  and  lineal  descendants  of  one  of  the 
tribes  of  Israel  ?     Alack  the  day  !     We  are  told  by  a  teacher  of  the 
religion  of  Israel  that  we  are  not  pure  Israelites.     All  our  glory  will 
depart  from  us,  and  the  faith  of  the  prophets  will  lose   its  hold  on 
the  Jews,  if  they  should   come  to   think  that  we  are  after  all  a  very 
mixed  race,  if  we  can  not  all  lay  claim  to  being  lineal  descendants  of 
those  that  went  forth  from  Egypt."     To  this  Inment  of  race-Jews,  I 
reply  :     Let  the  v(»ice  of  your  ignorauce  and    irreligi'on   be   hushed. 
There  has  never  been  a  great  people  on  earth  that  was  of  an  unmixed 
race.     Only  among  savages  do   vou   find  pure  races.     The  English, 
French,    and    German    nations,    on    whose    shoulders    rests    the   civ- 
ilization of  Europe,  have  been  composed  out  of  four  distinct  races  at 
least.     The  valiant,  free,  rich,  and  progressive  American  people  is  the 
most  mixed  of  all  peoples.     There  is  hardly  a  race  on  earth  that  has 
not  contributed  some  of  its  blood  toward  the  making  of  this  youngest 
nation.     All  tlie  greatest  nations  known  to  history  ;   the  civilizeis  of 
the  world,  the  Hellenes;  the  conquerors  of  the  world,  the  Romans; 
the  Egyptians,  before  whose  stupendous  works  we  stand  in  speechless 
wonder;   the  Babylonians  and  the  Assyrians,  who  gave  to  the  world 
the  art  of  writing,  of  architecture  and  sculpture,  the  science  of  astron- 
omy, and  the  elements  of  mathematics  ;  all  grew  out  of  an  amalgama' 
tiou  of  various  races.     And  should  the  people  of  Israel,  that  has  given 
to  the  world  something  tnore  precious  than  all  the  gifts  bestowed   by 
all  other  nations,  namely,  the  belief  in  the  one  only  God,  the  Maker 


JUDAISM    A    KELIOION    AND    NOT    A    RACE.  283 

of  heaven  and  eartli,  aud  the  Father  of  all  men,  the  belief  in  Yahve, 
the  righteous  and  merciful,  that  lias  given  birth  to  the  Bible,  and  en- 
riched the  families  of  the  earth  with  the  highest  spiritual  treasures, 
sliould  that  people  alone  have  formed  an  exception  to  the  universal 
rule  and  done  its  life-work  as  a  pure  race?  Savages  exist  as  a  race 
just  as  animals  form  distinct  species.  All  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
earth  were  welded  together  into  a  living  unity  by  spiritual  forces. 

The  Israelites  were  closely  considered  no  people  in  the  narrow 
and  accepted  sense.  They  were  from  the  very  beginning  a  religious 
community.  It  was  the  supreme  genius  of  one  man,  of  Moses,  that 
delivered  a  few  small  Semitic  tribes  aud  a  multitude  of  non-Semitic 
people  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt.  It  was  through  him  that  the 
infinite  mystery  of  all  manifested  itself  for  the  first  time  as  Yahve, 
the  just  God,  who  loves  the  stranger,  pities  the  oppressed,  and  wreaks 
vengeance  on  the  cruel  oppi-essor.  For  the  first  time  in  history  op- 
pression exercised  in  the  name  of  race  and  nationality,  was  resisted 
and  overcome  in  the  name  of  human  rights,  defended  by  a  God  that 
loves  riirht  and  hates  wrona;.  It  was  on  jSIouut  Sinai  that  the  hero 
of  justice  promulgated  the  leading  principles  of  social  and  individual 
morality  as  a  revelation  of  the  Deity.  It  was  there  that  he  made  a 
covenant  between  Yahve  and  the  freedmen,  not  as  between  a  tribe 
and  its  divinity,  but  as  between  the  redeemed  ones  and  their  Re- 
deemer, between  a  God  of  righteousness  and  the  people  that  was  to 
walk  in  the  ways  of  justice.  With  this  step  taken  by  Mases,  the 
spirit  of  mankind  broke  through  the  bounds  of  race  and  made  the 
attempt  to  establish  a  commonwealth  on  the  foundations  of  human 
rights  as  laid  down  and  made  sacred  and  inviolable  by  the  will  of 
Yahve.  The  people  of  Israel,  as  fashioned  and  inspired  by  Moses, 
had  in  itself  a  spiritual  power  of  attraction  aud  assimilation.  No 
race  and  uo  class  could  be  excluded  from  a  community  which  had 
for  its  animating  and  unifying  principle  the  belief  in  Yahve,  the 
protector  of  the  weak  and  oppressed  and  the  lover  of  right. 

As  the  Israelites  marched  through  the  wilderness  they  attached 
to  themselves  a  number  of  Midiautish  tribes.  Though  by  no  means 
a  niynerous  people,  they  conquered  Canaan  and  made  it  the  laud 
of  Israel  and  of  Yahve,  not  so  much  by  the  prowess  of  their  arms; 
but  by  the  spiritual  power  inherent  in  their  religion.  The  seven  na- 
tions were  not  annihilated,  as  a  late  legend  would  make  us  believe, 
but  were  assimilated  by  the  Israelitish  spirit  and  incorporated  into 
the  people  of  Yahve.  Translated  to  Babylonia,  the  Jews  converted 
the  population  of  whole  provinces  to  Yahvism  and  incorporated  them 
into    the   body  of  the  Jewish  people.     Only  about    50,000  Jews  re- 


284  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

turned  from  the  Babylonian  captivity.  But  in  spite  of  the  vehement 
protests  of  the  puritan  nationalists  against  intermarriage  nearly  all  the 
Pagan  inhabitants  of  Palestine  were  transformed  into  Yahve-worship- 
ing  Israelites.  In  every  province  and  city  of  the  Roman  empire  nu- 
merous Gentiles  embraced  the  faith  of  Israel  and  formed  flourishing 
congregations.  And  the  blood  of  these  Gentiles  still  rolls  in  our  veins. 
In  a  modified  form  as  trinitarian  Christianity,  the  religious  spirit  of 
Israel  has  conquered  and  assimilated  the  best  part  of  mankind  and 
made  it  Israelitish.  But  Yahvisni,  pure  and  simple,  did  not  cease  to 
gain  accessions.  The  blood  of  the  converted  Turanian  Chazars  has 
mixed  with  the  blood  of  the  Russian  Jews.  Teutonic,  Celtic,  Slavic, 
and  Latin  were  elements  that  have  entered  into  our  composition.  The 
very  vigor  and  vitality,  physical  and  mental,  of  the  Jews,  is  next  to 
the  perenially  active  influences  of  their  moralizing  religion,  due  to 
the  fact  that  they  are  an  extremely  mixed  race. 

Some  of  those  who  hear  and  many  more  who  will  read  this  lec- 
ture will  exclaim  :  '^  If  we  are  not  Jews  by  race,  if  we  are  not  Jews 
by  the  sacred  and  indissoluble  ties  of  blood,  why  should  w^e  continue 
to  be  Jews,  why  should  we  hold  to  Judaism?"  To  such  we  answer: 
"  If  you  are  not  Jews  by  faitli,  but  by  race,  the  sooner  you  will  de- 
part from  us,  the  better  it  will  be  for  you,  the  better  it  will  be  for 
the  mission  of  Yahve,  for  the  religion  of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  the 
religion  of  the  psalmists  and  sages  who  worked  and  prayed,  who  lived 
and  died  not  to  glorify  a  race  but  to  glorify  the  God  of  humanity. 
If  I  knew  that  there  is  not  a  drop  of  Semitic,  not  a  drop  of  Jewish 
blood  in  my  veins,  I  would  yet  cling  with  every  fiber  of  my  being, 
as  long  as  there  was  breath  in  me,  to  the  religious  community  of 
Israel,  to  the  Church  of  Yahvism,  to  the  monotheistic  faith  of  pure 
humanity.  Abraham  is  not  our  father,  Isaac  did  not  beget  us,  Jacob 
we  know  not,  but  Yahve,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,  the  Father 
of  all  men,  the  Father  of  justice  and  mercy.  He  is  our  Father  and 
our  God,  He  is  the  Redeemer  and  Guide  of  spiritual  and  universal 
Israel  from  generation  to  generation. 


POPULAR    ERRORS   ABOUT    THE   JEWS.  285 


POPULAR  ERRORS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS. 

By  EABBI  JOSEPH  SILVERMAN,  D.  D.,  NEW  YORK. 


Human  life  has  often  t^eemed  to  be  a  "comedy  of  errors."  Each 
generation  is  busy  correcting  the  mistakes  of  the  previous  one,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  making  others  for  the  next  generation  to.  correci.  His- 
tory is  only,  as  it  were,  a  record  of  tlie  world's  mistakes. 

There  would  be  no  science  if  God  had  revealed  the  whole  truth  to 
mankind.  We  are  constantly  groping  in  the  dark.  Every  doctrine 
which  to-day  was  a  fact,  becomes  merely  a  theory  to-morrow;  the  next 
day  a  myth.  All  is  mystery.  There  is  scarcely  any  truth  save  the 
false,  any  right  save  the  wrong.  Knowledge  is  only  opinion  about 
facts,  and  most  opinions  are  errors,  or  will  be  to-morrow. 

One  of  the  keenest  and  most  injurious  evils  that  can  befall  a  man 
or  a  people  is  to  be  misunderstood  ;  perhaps  worse  is  to  be  misrepre- 
sented. The  individual  who  has  experienced  both  knows  the  vital  suf- 
ferings that  were  his.  To  worship  truth  and  be  accused  of  falsehood; 
to  be  religiously  virtuous  and  be  charged  with  vice  ;  to  aspire  to  heaven 
and,  by  the  world,  be  consigned  to  purgatory  ;  to  be  robbed  of  one's 
identity  and  be  clad  in  the  garb  of  another,  of  an  inferior  being ;  to 
see  one's  principles  distorted,  every  motive  questioned,  one's  words 
misquoted,  every  act  misunderstood,  one's  whole  life  misrepresented, 
and  made  a  caricature  in  the  eyes  of  all  men,  without  the  j)ower  of 
redress,  is  to  suffer  all  the  unmitigated  pangs  of  inner  mortification. 
You  breathe  the  air,  you  see  the  world,  you  live  ;  but  the  air  is  poison, 
the  world  a  snare,  and  life  a  delusion.  Those  are  not  the  greatest 
martyrs  who  died  for  any  cause;  but  those  who  have  lived  and  strug- 
gled in  a  world  which  not  only  did  not  believe  or  trust  them,  but 
filched  from  them  every  blessed  endowment  and  acquired  virtue. 

If  any  one  were  to  attempt  to  analyze  the  character  of  the  Jew 
on  the  basis  of  what  lias  been  said  about  him  in  history  (so  called), 
in  fiction,  or  other  forms  of  literature,  both  prose  and  poetry,  he  would 
find  himself  confused  and  bafHed,  and  would  be  compelled  to  give  up 
his  task  in  despair.  The  greatest  paradoxes  have  been  expressed  about 
the  Jew.  The  vilest  of  vices  and  crimes,  as  well  as  the  greatest  of 
virtues,  have  been   attributed  to  him.     Pictures  of  him   have   been 


286  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

painted  as  dark  as  Barabbas  and  as  light  as  Mordecai,  Aviiile  between 
the  two  may  be  found  lines  of  every  shade  of  wickedness  and  goodness. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  many  errors  and  misconceptions 
about  the  Jew  can  be  traced  to  this  source.  The  opinions  of  the  world 
are,  to  a  great  extent,  formed  by  what  men  read  in  history  or  fiction, 
in  any  form  of  prose  or  poetry.  In  this  way  so  great  an  injustice  has 
been  done  to  the  Jew  that  it  will  be  impossible  fur  mankind  ever  to 
rectify  it  or  atone  there  for.  To  cite  but  one  example  out  of  au  infi- 
nite number,  I  refer  to  Shakespeare's  portrayal  of  the  Jew  in  his  char- 
acter of  Shylock.  This  picture  is  untrue  in  every  heinous  detail. 
Tlie  Jew  is  not  revengeful  as  Shylock.  Our  veiy  religion  is  opposed 
to  ilie  practice  of  revenge,  the  "lex  falionis"  having  never  been  taken 
literally,  but  interpreted  to  mean  full  compensation  for  injuries.  The 
Jew,  in  all  history,  is  never  known  to  have  exacted  a  pound  of  human 
flesh  cut  from  the  living  body  as  forfeit  for  a  bond.  Such  was  an 
ancient  Roman  practice.  Shylock  can  he  nothing  more  than  a  carica- 
ture of  the  Jew,  ;ind  yet  the  world  has  applauded  this  abortion  of 
literature,  this  contortion  of  the  truth,  more  tlian  the  ideal  portrait 
which  Lessiug  drew  of  Israel  in  his  "Nathan,  the  Wise." 

If  any  one  coming  from  another  world  were  to  inquire  of  the  in- 
habitants of  this  world  regarding  the  character  of  the  Jew,  their  beliefs 
and  practices,  he  would  obtain  the  most  incongruous  mixture  of  opin- 
ions. A  dense  ignorance  exists  about  the  Jews  regarding  their  social 
and  domestic  life,  their  history  and  litei-ature,  tlieir  achievements  and 
disappointments,  their  religion,  ideals  and  hopes.  And  this  ignorance 
is  not  confined  n)erely  to  ordinary  n)en,  but  prevails  also  amongst 
scholars.  Ovid,  Tacitus,  Shakespeare,  Voltaire,  and  Eenan,  most 
heathen  and  Christian  writers,  have  been  guilty  of  entertaining  and, 
what  is  more  culpable,  of  disseminating  erroneous  ideas  about  the  de- 
scendants of  ancient  Israel. 

"  In  regard  to  the  Jews,"  said  George  Eliot,  "it  wouhl  be  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  form  of  had  I'easoning  about  them  which  liad  not  been 
heard  in  conversation  or  been  admitted  to  the  dignity  of  print,  but  the 
neglect  of  resemblances  is  a  common  property  of  dullness  which  in- 
vites all  the  various  jjoints  of  view,  the  prejudiced,  the  puerile,  the 
spiteful,  and  the  abysmally  ignorant.  Our  critics  have  always  over- 
looked* our  resemblances  to  them  (the  Jews)  in  virtue  ;  have,  in  fiict, 
denounced  in  Jews  the  same  practices  which  they  admired  in  them- 
selves." 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  prejudice  against  the  Jews  is  as  much 
a  cause  of  ignorance  and  false  reasoning  as  a  result  therefrom. 

When  I  sometimes  hear  or  read   a  certain    class  of  opinions  con- 


POPULAR  ERRORS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS.  287 

cerning  the  Jews,  I  am  reiuiiirlerl  ofan  anecdote  about  Bishop  Brooks. 
He  attended  a  meeting  in  Enghind,  at  which  an  Englishman  declared, 
"All  Americans  are  nari-ow-minded  and  illiberal.  They  are  in  spirit, 
jnst  as  in  body,  small,  dwarfed  and  pigmy."  The  late  Bisliop  Brooks 
then  arose  in  all  tlie  majesty  of  his  colossal  stature,  and  called  out  in 
his  stentorian  voice,  "And  here  is  one  of  those  American  dwarfs." 

For  the  sake  of  completeness  I  will  speak  of  the  error  ordinarily 
committed,  of  referring  to  the  Jew  as  a  particuhu-  race.  Hebrew  is 
the  name  of  an  ancient  race  from  which  the  Jew  is  descended,  l)nt 
there  have  been  so  many  admixtures  to  the  oi'iginal  race  that  scarcely 
a  trace  of  it  exists  in  the  modern  Jews.  Intermarriage  with  Egyp- 
tians, the  various  Canaanitish  nations,  the  Midianites,  Syrians,  etc., 
are  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  There  have  also  been  adili- 
tions  to  the  Jews  by  voluntary  conversions,  such  as  that  in  the  eighth 
century,  of  Bulau,  Prince  of  the  Chasars,  and  his  entire  people.  We 
can,  therefore,  not  be  said  to  be  a  distinct  race  to-day. 

We  form  no  separate  nation  and  no  faction  of  any  natif)n.  Is  or 
is  there  any  general  desire  to  return  to  Palestine  and  resurrect  the 
ancient  nationality.  We  can  only  look  with  misgiving,  rather  with 
indifference,  upon  an  organized  effort  undertaken  by  fanatic  believers 
who  are  deeply  concerned  in  the  fulfillment  of  certain  Biblical  prophe- 
sies. They  overh)ok  the  fact  that  those  prophesies  have  either  already 
been  or  need  never  be  fulfilled. 

We  form  merely  an  independent  religious  community  and  feel 
keenly  the  injustice  that  is  done  us  when  the  religion  of  the  Jew  is 
singled  out  for  aspersion,  whenever  such  a  citizen  is  guilty  of  a  mis- 
demeanor. Jew  is  not  to  be  used  parallel  with  German,  Englishman, 
American,  but  with  Christian,  Catholic,  Protestant,  Buddhist,  Moham- 
medan or  Atheist. 

Over  fifty  years  ago  the  late  Isaac  DTsraeli  wrote  that  "  the 
Jewish  people  are  not  a  nation,  for  they  consist  of  many  nations. 
They  are  Russian,  English,  French,  or  Italian,  and,  like  the  chame- 
leon, reflect  the  color  of  the  spot  they  rest  on.  They  are  like  the 
waters  running  through  the  countries,  tinged  in  their  course  with  all 
the  varieties  of  the  soil  where  they  deposit  themselves." 

Au  eminent  Jewish  divine,  in  a  spirit  of  indignation  at  some 
harsh  criticism  cast  upon  the  Hebrew  nation,  so-called,  asked:  "If 
we  are  a  separate  nation,  where  is  our  country;  where  our  laws ; 
where  our  armies  ;  where  our  courts  of  justice  ;  where  our  flag  ?"  To 
this  question  the  critic  made  no  reply.  But  we,  here  in  congress  as- 
sembled, can  unitedly  answer:  "The  land  of  our  nativity  or  of  our 
adoption  is  our  country,  its  laws  we  obey,  in  its  armies  we  find  our 


288  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

comrades,  by  the  decision  of  its  courts  we  abide,  under  its  Aug  we 
seek  protection,  and  for  it  we  are  ready  to  sacrifice  oar  substance  and 
our  lives  and  to  pledge  our  sacred  honor. 

We  are  furtliermore  often  charged  with  exclusiveness  and  clan- 
nishness,  with  having  only  narrow,  tribal  asi)iratious,  and  with  being 
averse  to  breaking  down  social  barriers.  Few  outside  of  that  inner 
close  circle  that  is  to  be  met  in  the  Jewish  home  or  social  group  know 
anglit  of  the  Jew's  domestic  happiness  and  social  virtues.  If  there  is 
auv  clannishness  in  the  Jew,  it  is  due  not  to  any  contempt  for  the 
outside  world,  but  to  an  ulter  abandon  to  the  charm  of  home  and  the 
fascination  of  confreres  in  thought  and  sentiment. 

However,  if  there  is  a  remnant  of  exclusiveness  in  the  Jew  of 
to-day,  is  he  to  blame  for  it?  Did  he  create  the  social  barrier?  We 
must  agree  with  Mr.  Zangwill  when  he  says:  "  People  wiio  have  been 
living  in  a  Ghetto  for  a  couple  of  centuries  are  not  able  to  step  outside 
merely  because  the  gates  are  thrown  down,  or  to  efface  the  brands  on 
their  souls  by  i)utting  off  the  yellow  badges.  The  isolation  from  with- 
out will  have  come  to  seem  the  law  of  their  being."  (Children  of  the 
Ghetto,  1.  (i.) 

None  is  more  desirous  of  fraternity  than  the  Jew,  but  he  will  not 
gain  it  at  the  loss  of  his  manhood.  He  will  not  accept  fraternity  as  a 
patronage,  but  would  rather  claim  it  as  a  simple  matter  of  equality. 
That  is  a  point  wiiich  our  critics  and  detractors  do  not  understand. 
Again,'  if  the  Jew  is  exclusive,  it  is  due  to  the  fact  that  while  he  is 
willing  to  come  to  any  truce  for  brotherhood,  he  declines  to  do  so  and 
be  regarded  as  legitimate  prey  for  religious  conquest.  And  that  is  a 
point  which  the  missionaries  can  not  understand. 

The  fact  that  Jews  are,  as  a  rule,  averse  to  intermarriage  with 
non-Jews,  has  been  quoted  in  evidence  of  Jewish  exclusiveness.  Two 
errors  seem  t  >  underlie  this  false  reasoning  :  The  one,  that  Judaism 
directly  interdicts  intermarriage  with  Christians,  and  the  other  that 
the  Jewish  Chui'ch  disciplines  those  who  are  guilty  of  such  an  act. 
The  INlosaic  law,  at  best,  oidy  forbade  intcnnai  liage  with  the  seven 
Canaanitish  nations  and,  though  the  only  justifiable  inference  would 
be  that  this  interdiction  ap{)Iies  also  to  heathens,  still,  by  ralibinical 
forms  of  interpretation  it  has  been  made  to  apply  also  to  Christians. 
The  historical  fact  is  that  the  Roman  .(.'atholic  ConiK^il  held  at  Orleans, 
in  o'-jS  a.  C.  pi,  first  proiiibited  Christians  to  inter, narry  with  Jews. 
This  decree  was  later  enforced  by  meting  out  the  penalty  of  death  to 
both  parties  to  such  a  union.  Jewish  Rabbis,  then,  as  a  matter  of 
self-protection,  interdicted  the  practice  of  intermarriage.  And  though 
to-dav,  men  are  free  to  act  according  to  their  tastes,  there  exists  on  the 


POPULAR  ERROF.S  ABOUT  THE  JEWS.  289 

part  of  the  Jew  as  much  repiignauce  to  intermarriage  as  on  the  part 
of  the  Christian.  Such  ties  are,  as  a  rule,  not  encouraged  by  the 
families  of  either  side,  and  for  very  good  cause.  And  even  if  there 
exists,  on  the  part  of  the  Jew,  a  greater  aversion  to  intermarriage, 
this  can  not  and  should  not  be  charged  to  a  desire  for  clannishness 
or  exclusiveness,  but  rather  to  those  natural  barriers  that  separate 
Jewish  from  Christian  society. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  at  present,  to  lay  the  blame  for  the  creation 
or  continuance  of  such  barriers,  but  only  to  submit  that  social  ostra- 
cism, as  that  term  is  understood  to-day,  has  never  in  any  form  been 
undertaken  by  Jews.  A  sense  of  just  pride  even  constrains  me  from 
strongly  protesting  against  the  social  ostracism  that,  at  times,  manifests 
itself  against  the  Jew.  I  desire  here  merely  to  point  out  the  error  that 
seems  to  inspire  it,  namely,  the  grievous  error  that  ostracism  is  sup- 
posed to  purify  the  one  side  of  all  objectionable  characters,  and  to 
stamp  all  ostracized  as  the  outcast  of  the  earth.  We  are  familiar  with 
that  false  logic  that  infers  a  broad  generality  from  a  few  isolated  par- 
ticulars, which  imputes  the  sins  of  an  individual  to  the  class  of  which 
he  may  be  a  member,  which  charges  the  misdemeanor  of  one  upon  a 
whole  people,  which  condemns  a  religion  because  of  the  wickedness 
of  a  few  liypocrites,  which  punishes  the  guilty  witli  the  innocent. 
And  it  is  such  fallacious  reasoning  that  is  time  and  again  applied  to 
Jews,  with  this  exception,  that  the  virtues  of  a  Montefiore  or  a  Baron 
de  Hirsch  are  not  generalized  in  the  same  manner.  We  are  convinced 
that  Jews  who  have  outlived  the  terrors  of  the  Inquisition  will  be  able 
to  live  down  all  abuse,  all  false  reasoning,  and  maintain  the  majesty 
of  their  manhood  even  outside  the  charming  circle  of  self-appointed 
censors  of  social  life.  But  we  must  protest  against  the  error  which 
mistakes  ostracism  for  exclusiveness.  In  this  case  the  latter  is  a  virtue, 
the  former  a  vice — a  crime.  Let  the  verdict  of  history  say,  who  is 
guilty  ? 

We  have  even  been  charged  with  exclusiveness  in  our  religion — 
so  little  is  our  practice  known.  I  have  myself  been  lately  asked  by  a 
lady  who  makes  some  pretense  to  education,  whether  she  should  not  go 
to  the  synagogue  in  order  to  see  the  offering  of  animal  sacrifices  and 
tlie  burning  of  incense.  She  had  sup{)osed  that  the  Jewish  religion 
was  a  secret,  mysterious  rite,  to  witness  which  was  only  the  privilege 
of  the  initiated.  Frequently  we  are  asked  whether  non-Jews  are  per- 
mitted to  enter  a  Jewish  house  of  worship.  Error  and  misrepresenta- 
tion about  Judaism  are  common.  A  Christian  divine  once  remarked 
that  the  offering  of  the  Pasciial  lamb  in  the  Synagogue,  at  this  very 
19 


290  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

day,  contains  ii  sublime  picture  of  tlie  transfiguiatiou  of  Christ.  And 
recently  in  New  York  (and  perhaps  in  other  cities  also),  a  missionary 
was  giving  performances  in  Christian  cliurche.s,  showing  how  the  Jews 
still  offer  the  Pa.schal  lamb.  If  such  gross  errors  and  misrepresenta- 
tions are  current  and  are  taught  in  this  country  with  the  connivance 
of  men  who  know  better,  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  benighted 
peasants  in  Europe  can  be  made  to  believe  that  Jews  use  the  blood 
of  Christian  children  at  the  Passover  services,  and  how  sucli  mon- 
strous calumnies  could  rouse  the  prejudice  and  vengeance  of  the  igno- 
rant masses. 

So  little  is  Judaism  understood  by  even  educated  men  outside  of 
our  ranks,  that  it  is  commonly  believed  tlu\t  all  Jews  hold  the  same 
form  of  faith  and  practice.  Here  the  same  error  of  reasoning  is 
used  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made,  in  speaking  of  the 
character  of  the  Jew  as  an  individual  and  as  a  class.  Because  some 
Jews  still  believe  in  the  coming  of  a  Personal  Messiah,  or  in  bodily 
resurrection  or  in  the  establishment  of  the  Palestinian  kingdom,  the 
inference  is  at  once  drawn  by  many,  that  all  Jews  hold  the  same  belief. 
Very  little  is  known  by  the  populace  of  the  several  schisms  in  modern 
Judaism  denominated  as  Orthodox,  Conservative,  Reform,  and  Radical. 
It  is  not  ray  province  to  speak  exhaustively  of  these  sects,  and  it  must 
suffice  to  merely  remark  here  that  Orthodox  Judaism  believes  in  car- 
rying out  the  letter  of  the  ancient  Mjsaic  code  as  expounded  by  the 
Talmudic  Rabbis;  that  Reform  Judaism  seeks  to  retain  the  si)irit 
only  of  the  ancient  law,  discarding  the  absolute  authority  of  both  Bible 
and  Talmud,  making  reason  and  modern  demands  paramount;  that 
C(mservatism  is  merely  a  moderate  Reform,  while  Radicalism  declares 
itself  independent  of  established  forms,  clinging  mainly  to  the  ethical 
basis  of  Judaism. 

Reform  Judaism  has  been  the  specially  favored  subject  of  misun- 
derstanding, of  ignorance.  Recently  an  eminent  Christian  divine  of 
St.  Louis  objected  to  extending  an  invitation  to  a  Reform  Rabbi  to 
lecture  before  the  Minister's  Association,  on  the  plea  that  "ail  Re- 
form Jews  are  Infidels."  A  still  grosser  piece  of  ignorance  is  the 
identification  of  Reform  Judaism  with  Unitarianism.  As  scholarly 
and  finished  a  writer  as  Frances  Power  Cobb,  in  a  recent  article  on 
"Progressive  Judaism,"  made  bold  to  .show  her  extreme  interest  in 
this  Reform  movement,  believing  it  to  evidence  a  breaking  up  of  Ju- 
daism altogetlier  and  a  turning  toward  Christianity.  Far  from  break- 
ing up  Judaism,  Reform  has  strengthened  it  in  many  ways  and  re- 
tained in  the  fold  those  who  would  have  gone  over,  not  to  (Christian- 
ity, but   to  Atheism.     Judaism    can   never  tend    toward   Christianity, 


POPULAR  ERRORS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS.  291 

in  any  sense,  notably  to  Unitarianism  ;  the  latter  rather  is  gradually 
breaking  away  from  Christianity  and  tending  toward  Jewish  belief. 
For  the  present,  however,  Reform  Judaism  still  stands  opposed  to  even 
the  most  liberal  Unitarians  and  protests  against  hero-worship,  against 
a  second  revelation,  and  the  necessity  of  a  better  code  of  ethics  than 
the  one  pronounced  by  Moses  and  the  prophets. 

To  prevent  the  inference  that  Judaism  is  no  positive  quantity,  and 
that  there  are  irreconcilable  differences  dividing  the  various  sects,  I 
will  say  that  all  Jews  agree  on  essentials  and  declare  their  belief  in 
the  Unity  and  Spirituality  of  God,  in  the  efficacy  of  religion  for  spirit- 
ual regeneration,  and  for  ethical  improvenient  in  the  universal  law  of 
compensation,  according  to  which  there  are  reward  and  punishment, 
either  here  or  hereafter,  in  the  final  triumph  of  truth  and  fraternity  of 
all  men.  It  may  be  briefly  stated  that  the  Decalogue  forms  the  con- 
stitution of  Judaism.  According  to  Moses,  the  prophets  and  the  his- 
torical interpretation  of  Judaism,  whoever  believes  and  practices  the 
"  Ten  Commandments"  is  a  Jew. 

Errors  about  the  Jew  pertain  not  only  to  questions  of  race  and 
nationality,  not  only  to  his  individual,  domestic  and  socal  character, 
not  only  to  his  religion,  but  also  to  his  inherent  power  to  resist  the  con- 
demnation and  opposition  of  an  evil  enemy,  and  his  persistent  exist- 
ence in  spite  of  the  destructive  forces  of  a  hostile  world.  The  very 
fact  that  after  so  many  fruitless  efforts  to  destroy  the  Jew  by  jDersecu- 
tion  and  inquisition,  similar  efforts  are  still  put  forth,  only  proves  that 
the  invincibility  of  Israel  has  ever  been,  and  is  still,  underestimated. 
It  is  a  fact  that  the  cause  of  the  Jew  is  strengthened  in  times  of 
persecution.  When  the  hand  of  the  oppressor  is  felt,  the  oppressed 
band  together,  encourage  one  another,  become  more  faithful  to  their 
God,  firmer  in  their  conviction,  and  more  zealous  in  behalf  of  their  re- 
ligion. It  has  been  said  that  martyrdom  is  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
This  is  no  less  true  of  Judaism.  The  very  means  adopted  to  destroy  it 
have  only  plowed  up  the  fallow  land  and  planted  a  stronger  faith. 
Persecution  against  any  religion  is  a  wanton  error,  a  monstrous  blas- 
phemy. 

The  very  traducers  and  persecutors  of  the  Jews  are  the  real  ene- 
mies of  Christianity.  Russia  has  set  Christianity  one  or  two  centuries 
backward.  Anti-Semitic  agitation  in  Germany  will  have  a  similar  re- 
sult. The  church  is  committing  a  monumental  blunder  in  conniving 
at  this  nineteenth  century  outrage,  and  must  sooner  or  later  be  over- 
taken by  her  Nemesis.  The  church  should  in  her  own  interest,  in  the 
name  of  her  own  principles  and  teachings,  rise  up  in  arms  against  un- 
holy Russia  and  unrighteous  Germany. 


292  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

When  persecutiou  had  doue  its  work  to  uo  avail,  when  inquisition 
failed  to  make  any  impression  on  tlie  Jew,  in  order  to  induce  him  to 
leave  his  brethren,  detraction  and  ostracism  were  resorted  to  in  order 
to  weaken  the  hold  of  the  Jew  upon  his  co-religionists.  We  have  al- 
ready referred  to  some  forms  of  this  persecution,  and  wish  to  add  that 
Jews  were  falsely  charged  with  having  poisoned  wells,  with  having 
spread  contagious  diseases,  and  been  the  cause  of  the  black  death  and 
every  public  calamity.  Strenuous  efforts  have  also  been  made  to  im- 
pair their  commercial  relation  with  the  world.  Jews  have  been  con- 
demned as  a  people  of  usurers,  of  avaricious  money-lenders,  as  consum- 
ers in  contradistinction  to  producers.  "  In  the  Midddle  Ages,"  says 
Lady  Magnus  (Outlines  of  Jewish  History),  "'Jew'  meant  to  the 
popular  mind  nothing  more  than  money-lender.  Men  spoke  of  having 
their  'Jews'  as  we  speak  of  having  our  grocers  and  druggists.  Each 
served  a  particular  purpose  and  was  primarily  regarded  in  conneciiou 
with  that  service.  The  real  reason  was  never  recognized  by  popular 
judgment,  and  the  rude  peasant  of  mediaeval  Europe  firmly  believed 
that  the  Jew  amassed  more  money  than  those  about  him,  not  because 
he  was  more  industrious  or  more  frugal,  but  because  he  was  meaner, 
trickier,  more  deceitful,  and,  if  necessary,  positively  dishonest."  What- 
ever may  be  the  reprehensible  practice  of  individuals,  such  an  aspersion 
does  not  ap{)ly  to  the  Jewish  character,  Jewish  teaching,  both  in  Script- 
ure and  Talmud,  being  opposed  to  usury  and  overreaching  of  wiiatever 
kind. 

It  is  malicious  slander  to  class  the  Jews  as  consumers,  as  distin- 
guished from  producers.  Tlie  Jew  is  by  birthright  a  tiller  of  the  soil. 
Of  this  birthright  he  has  been  robbed  by  rapacious  governments. 
Through  centuries  of  persecution,  when  he  was  but  a  wandering  so- 
journer on  the  earth,  with  no  country  he  could  call  his  own,  no  govern- 
ment to  love,  no  Hag  to  revere,  he  Avas  like  a  tortoise  that  carries  ins 
house  with  him.  The  Jew  was  compelled  to  traffic  in  moneys  and 
gems  which  he  could  take  with  him  from  place  to  place  as  necessity 
demanded.  Today,  however,  he  is  found  in  all  trades  auvl  professions; 
to-day  he  is  agriculturist,  mechanic  and  artist,  partakes  of  all  the  boun- 
ties of  free  citizenship,  and  must  be  counted  among  the  producers  of 
the  world.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  tiie  Bible,  tlie  Talmud,  music 
and  poetry,  art  and  science,  which  the  Jews  have  contributed  to  the 
intellectual  and  material  wealth  of  matdiind  !  To  still  repeat  the  old 
thread-bare  charge  is  worse  than  malicious  slander;  it  is  a  criminal 
detraction,  a  subversion  of  all  fact,  a  travesty  upon  truth. 

There  is  sufficient  reason  to  believe  that  all  persecution  and  de- 
traction  of  Jews  rest  on    the  fuithcr   fimdiiint  ntal   erroneous  supposi- 


POPULAR  ERRORS  ABOUT  THE  JEWS.  298 

tir)ii  that  Jews  can,  in  some  way  or  other,  be  converted  to  Christian- 
ity. When  men  think  tiiey  can  destroy  the  Jew  aixl  his  religion, 
they  forget  his  indomitable  patience,  his  untiring  perseverance,  his  al- 
most stolid  obstinacy.  When  they  endeavor  to  crush  h.in),  they  over- 
look his  hardened  nature,  steeled  by  trials  and  misfortune.  When 
they  expect  to  lure  him  from  his  associates,  and  wean  him  from  his  re- 
ligion, they  lose  sight  of  his  keen  wit,  his  sense  of  the  humorous  and 
ridicidous.  When  they  endeavor  to  punish  him  with  ostracism,  they 
fail  to  note  his  cheerful  disposition,  his  happy  home,  and  charming 
social  instincts.  When  they  endeavor  to  injure  his  influence  by  slan- 
der and  detraction,  they  are  blind  to  his  utter  disregard  for  public 
favors  and  to  his  ability  to  rise  to  any  emergency.  When  they  look 
forward  to  converting  him  by  force  or  persuasion,  by  threat  or  bribe, 
they  disclose  their  ignorance  of  liis  deep-seated  conviction  of  the  truth 
of  his  own  religion. 

The  meager  results  achieved  by  missionaries  and  tracts  have 
proved  how  futile  are  all  efforts  t«  convert  the  Jews.  And  even  those 
few  who  have  changed  their  faith  have  done  so,  there  is  ample  reason 
to  believe,  only  through  mercenary  motives,  only  because  abject  pov- 
erty forced  them  to  accept  the  bribe  that  was  temptingly  held  out  to- 
Avard  them.  I  believe  there  are  many  sincere  missionaries,  and  that, 
perhaps,  amongst  savages  they  accomplish  some  good  as  a  civilizing 
leaven,  but  amongst  the  Jews  their  labors  are  uncalled  for  and  mis- 
directed. 

This  whole  modern  system  of  anti-Semitic  agitation,  and  of  at- 
tempts to  convert  the  Jews  by  any  means,  reveals  to  us  the  erroneous 
impression  entertained  by  many,  it  seems,  that  Jews  have  entered  into 
a  kind  of  secret  competition  with  the  rest  of  the  w^orld  for  the  su- 
premacy of  Judaism  and  its  f  illowers.  Nothing  could  be  further  re- 
moved from  the  truth.  Jews  do  not  aspire  to  supremacy  (perhaps  un- 
fortunately) religiously,  socially  or  politically.  They  desire  no  dis- 
tinction as  a  particular  sect  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  in  dress, 
habits,  manners,  social  features,  or  politics.  Jews  have  renounced  ,the 
title  of  "  Peculiar  People,"  and  regard  such  a  sobriquet  rather  as  a 
reproach  than  a  compliment.  They  claim  the  name  of  Jew  merely  as 
a  term  denoting  their  particular  faith  and  practice.  In  religion  only 
are  Jews  different  from  others,  and  they  claim  the  right  as  free  men 
to  worship  their  God  in  peace,  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
and  not  another's  conscience. 

The  Jew  is  tolerant  by  nature,  tolerant  by  virtue  of  his  religious 
teaching.  He  believes  in  allowing  every  man,  what  he  claims  for 
himself,  the   right  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  and  make  his  own 


294  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

peace  with  God.  He  has  only  oue  important  request  to  make  of 
Christian  teachers  and  preachers,  namely,  that  they  desist  from  teach- 
ing their  school  children  and  congregations  the  prevailing  error  that 
the  Jews  have  crucified  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Because  of  this  great 
error  the  believing  world  looks  upon  the  Jew  through  an  imperfect 
medium,  one  that  enlarges  faults  and  minimizes  virtues.  It  is  this 
error  w'hich  has  caused  so  much  prejudice,  bitter  hatred,  and  unjust 
persecution.  If  it  were  once  corrected,  the  way  would  be  opened  for 
the  correction  of  many  other  errors.  Now  is  the  great  opportunity  of 
the  age  for  rectifying  it.  Let  the  truth  be  told  to  the  world  by  the 
assembled  Parliament  of  Religions,  that  not  the  Jews  but  the  ''Romans 
Imve  crucified  tlie  great  Nazarene  teacher." 

And  until  the  Jew  has  been  set  before  the  world  in  the  right 
light,  let  us  exert  our  utmost  toward  correcting  mistakes,  false  im- 
pressions, and  malicious  slander.  The  work  of  this  congress  is  in  that 
direction.  But  it  alone  is  not  sufficient.  Let  us  also  use  every  agency 
in  our  power,  the  pulpit,  the  press,  and  platform,  the  vehicles  of  gen- 
eral literature,  for  the  purpose  of  disseminating  the  truth  and  destroy- 
ing the  false  about  Israel.  In  addition  to  this,  our  Union  of  Congre- 
gations, Rabbinical  Conference,  and  Publication  Society  could  and 
should  establish  a  competent  Literary  Bureau  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
pointing  out  errors  about  the  Jews,  defending  our  principles  and  insti- 
tutions, of  rebutting  attacks,  silencing  slander,  righting  wrongs,  and 
demanding  justice  and  equality  from  all  the  world.  Such  a  Bureau 
could  do  valuable  service  in  reviewing  press  and  magazine  articles,  as 
well  as  books,  and  calling  the  attention  of  the  world  to  fallacious  rea- 
soning, false  statements,  and  unjust  criticism.  If  it  were  known  that 
a  conipeteut  literary  bureau  was  on  the  constant  watch  to  expose  in- 
nuendo and  slander,  fallacy,  misrepresentation,  and  error,  it  would 
induce  many  writers  and  speakers  to  be  more  circumspect  in  their 
statements  and  arguments.  With  every  agency  thus  working  in  be- 
half of  the  right,  error  and  falsehood  must  in  time  succumb.  They 
are,  even  without  any  defense  on  our  part,  engaged  in  an  unequal 
contest  with  Israel,  for  God  is  with  us,  and,  it  may  take  long,  but  the 
truth  will  prevail. 


THE    OUTLOOK    OF   JUDAISM.  295 


THE  OUTLOOK  OF  JUDAISM. 

By  miss  JOSEPHINE  LAZARUS. 


The  niueteeuth  century  has  had  its  surprises  ;  the  position  of  the 
Jews  to-day  is  one  of  these,  both  for  the  Jew  himself  aud  for  the  most 
enlishtened  Christians.  There  were  certain  facts  we  thought  forever 
laid  at  rest,  certain  conditions  aud  contingencies  that  could  never  con- 
front us  agaiu,  certain  war-cries  that  could  not  be  raised.  In  this  last 
decade  of  our  civilization,  however,  we  have  been  rudely  awakened 
from  our  false  dream  of  security — it  may  be  to  a  higher  calling  and 
destinv  than  we  had  yet  foreseen.  I  do  not  wish  to  emphasize  the 
painful  facts  by  dwelling  on  them,  or  even  pointing  them  out.  We 
are  all  aware  of  them,  and  whenever  Jews  and  Christians  can  come 
together  on  equal  terms,  ignoring  differences  and  opposition  and  injury, 
it  is  well  that  they  should  do  so.  But,  at  the  same  time,  we  must  not 
shut  our  eyes,  nor,  like  the  ostrich,  bury  our  head  in  the  sand.  The 
situation,  which  is  so  grave  a  one,  must  be  bravely  and  honestly  faced, 
the  crisis  met,  the  problem  frankly  stated  in  all  its  bearings,  so  that 
the  whole  truth  may  be  brought  to  light,  if  possible.  We  are  a  little 
apt  to  look  on  one  side  only  of  the  shield,  especially  when  our  sense  of 
justice  and  humanity  is  stung,  and  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  and  per- 
secuted— our  brothers — rings  in  our  ears.  As  we  all  know,  the  effect 
of  persecution  is  to  strengthen  solidarity.  The  Jew  who  never  was  a 
Jew  before  becomes  one;  when  the  vital  spot  is  touched,  "  the  Jew" 
is  thrust  upon  him,  whether  he  would  or  not,  and  made  an  insult  and 
reproach.  When  we  are  attacked  as  Jews,  we  do  not  strike  back 
angrily,  but  we  coil  up  in  our  shell  of  Judaism  and  intrench  ourselves 
more  strongly  than  before.  The  Jews  themselves,  both  from  natural 
habit  and  force  of  circumstance,  have  been  accustomed  to  dwell  along 
their  own  lines  of  thought  and  life,  absorljed  in  their  own  point  of 
view,  almost  to  the  exclusion  of  outside  opinion.  Indeed,  it  is  this 
power  of  concentration  in  their  own  pursuits  that  insures  their  success 
in  most  things  they  set  out  to  do.  They  have  been  content  for  the 
most  part  to  guard  the  truth  they  hold,  rather  than  spread  it. 

Amid  favorable  surroundings  and   easy  circumstances,  many  of 
us  had  ceased  to  take  it  very  deeply  or  seriously  that  we  were  Jews. 


296  STATE    AND    SOCIETY. 

We  had  grown  to  look  upon  it  merely  as  an  accident  (jf  birth  for  which 
we  were  not  called  upon  to  make  any  sacrifice,  but  rather  to  make 
ourselves  as  much  as  possible  like  our  neighbors,  neither  better  nor 
worse  than  the  people  around  us.  But  with  a  painful  shock,  we  are 
suddenly  made  aware  of  it  as  a  detriment,  and  we  shrink  at  once  back 
into  ourselve.«,  hurt  iu  our  most  sensitive  point,  our  pride  wounded  to 
the  quick,  our  most  sacred  feelings,  as  we  believe,  outraged  and  tram- 
pled upon.  But  our  very  attitude  proves  that  something  is  wrong 
with  us.  Persecution  does  not  touch  us ;  we  do  not  feel  it  when  we 
have  an  idea  large  enough  and  close  enough  to  our  hearts  to  sustain 
and  console  us.  The  martyrs  of  old  did  not  feel  tlie  fires  of  the  stake, 
the  arrows  that  pierced  their  fiesh.  The  Jews  of  the  olden  time 
danced  to  their  death  with  praise  and  song,  and  joyful  shouts  of  halle- 
lujah. They  were  willing  to  die  for  that  which  was  their  life  and  more 
than  their  life  to  them.  But  the  martyrdom  of  tlie  present  day  is  a 
strange  and  novel  one,  that  has  no  grace  or  glory  about  it,  and  of 
which  we  are  not  proud.  We  have  not  chosen  and  perhaps  would  not 
choose  it.  INIany  of  us  scarcely  know  the  cause  for  which  we  suffer, 
and  therefore  we  feel  every  pang,  every  cut  of  the  lash.  For  our  own 
sake  then,  and  still  moi'e  jierhaps  for  those  who  come  after  us,  and  to 
•whom  we  bequeath  our  Judaism,  it  behooves  us  to  find  out  just  what 
it  means  to  us,  and  what  it  holds  for  us  to  live  by.  In  other  words, 
what  is  the  content  and  significance  of  modern  Judaism  in  the  world 
to-day,  not  only  for  us  personally  as  Jews,  but  for  the  world  at  large? 
What  power  has  it  as  a  spiritual  influence?  And  as  such,  what  is  its 
share  or  part  in  the  large  life  of  humanity,  in  the  broad  current  and 
movement  of  the  times?  What  actuality  has  it,  and  what  possible 
unfoldment  in  the  future? 

No  sooner  do  we  put  these  questions  than  we  are  at  once  con- 
fronted with  every  phase  of  sentiment,  every  shade  and  variety  of 
opinion.  We  sweep  the  whole  gamut  of  modern,  restless  thought,  of 
shifting  beliefs  and  unbelief,  from  the  de])ths  of  superstition,  as  well  as 
of  skepticism  and  materialism,  to  the  cold  heights  of  agnosticism  ; 
from  the  most  rigid  and  uncompromising  formalism,  or  a  sincere  piety, 
to  a  humanitarianism  so  broad  that  it  has  almost  eliminated  God,  or  a 
Deism  so  vast  and  distant  that  it  has  almost  eliminated  humanity. 
Notliing  is  more  curious  than  this  range  and  diversity  of  conviction, 
from  a  center  of  unity,  for  the  Jewish  idea  survives  through  every 
contradiction,  as  the  race,  the  type,  persists  through  every  modification 
of  climate  and  locality,  and  every  varying  nationality.  Clear  and 
distinct,  we  can  trace  it  through  history,  luid  as  the  present  can  best 


THE   OUTLOOK    OF   JUDAISM.  297 

be  read  by  the  liglit  of  the  past,  I  should  like  briefly  to  review  the 
ideas  on  which  our  existence  is  based  and  our  identity  sustained. 

AVhat  an  endless  perspective!  Age  after  age  unrolls,  nations  ap- 
pear and  disappear,  and  still  we  follow  and  find  them.  Back  to  the 
very  morning  of  time,  before  the  primal  mist  had  lifted  from  the 
world,  while  yet  there  were  giants  in  the  earth,  and  the  sons  of  God 
mingled  with  the  daughters  of  men,  we  come  upon  their  dim  and 
mythical  beginnings.  A  tribe  of  wanderei's  in  eastern  lauds,  roaming 
beside  the^water-ways,  feeding  their  flocks  upon  tlie  hill-sides,  leading 
their  camels  across  the  lonely  desert  wastes,  and  ])itchiug  their  tents 
beneath  the  high,  star-studded  skies.  From  the  first,  a  people  much 
alone  with  their  own  souls  and  nature,  brought  to  face  the  Infinite — 
self-centered,  brooding,  and  conscious' of  a  something,  they  knew  not 
what — a  power,  and  tliemselves,  that  led  their  steps  and  walked  and 
talked  with  men.  Already  in  those  earliest  days  great  types  loom  up 
among  them,  the  patriarchal  leaders,  large,  tribal,  composite  figures, 
rather  than  actual  persons,  and  yet  touched  with  human  traits  and 
pert^onality,  moving  about  in  pastoral  and  domestic  scenes;  men,  al- 
ready, in  their  own  crude  way,  preoccupied  of  God,  and  his  dealings 
with  themselves  and  with  the  world.  Upon  a  background  of  myth, 
and  yet,  in  a  sense  how  bold,  how  clear,  stands  Moses,  the  man  of 
God,  who  saw  the  world  aflame  with  Deity — the  burning  bush,  the 
flaming  mountain  top,  the  fiery  cloud,  leading  his  people  from  cap- 
tivity, and  who  heard  pronounced  the  divine  and  everlasting  name, 
the  unpronounceable,  the  Ineffable  I  Am.  In  Moses,  above  all, 
whether  we  look  upon  him  as  semi-historic  or  a  purely  symbolic  figure, 
the  genius  of  the  Hebrew  race  is  typified,  the  fundamental  note  of 
Judaism  is  struck,  the  word  that  rings  forever  after  through  the  ages, 
which  is  the  law  spoken  by  God  himself,  with  trumpet  sound,  midst 
thunderings  and  lightning  from  heaven.  Whatever  of  true  or  false, 
of  fact  or  legend  hangs  about  it,  we  have  in  the  Mosaic  conception, 
the  moral  ideal  of  the  Hebrews,  a  code,  divinely  sanctioned  and  or- 
dained, the  absolute  imperative  of  duty,  a  transcendent  law  laid  upon 
man  wliich  he  must  perforce  obey,  in  order  that  he  may  live.  "Thou 
shalt,"  "Thou  slialt  not,"  hedge  him  around  ou  every  side,  now  as 
moral  obligation  and  again  as  ceremonial  or  legal  ordinance,  and  be- 
comes the  bulwark  of  the  faith,  through  centuries  of  greatness,  cen- 
turies of  darkness  and  humiliation. 

Amid  a  cloud  of  wars,  Jehovah's  sacred  wars,  with  shadowy  hosts 
and  chieftains,  the  scattered  clans  unite,  the  kingdom  forms,  and  we 
have  the  dawn  of  history.  Jerusalem  is  founded,  at  once  a  strong- 
hold and  a  sanctuary,  and  the  temple  built.     The  national   and  re- 


298  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

ligious  life  grow  as  one  growth,  kuittiiig  tliemselves  together,  aud  mu- 
tually strengthening  and  upholding  one  another.  Then  the  splendors 
of  Solomon's  reign,  the  palace  with  royal  state,  aud  above  all  the  ever- 
growing magnificence  of  the  temple  service,  with  more  aud  more 
sumptuous  rites.  The  true  greatness  of  Israel  was  never  to  consist  in 
outward  greatness,  nor  in  the  materializing  of  any  of  its  ideas,  either 
in  the  religious  or  the  secular  life,  but  wholly  in  the  inner  impulse  and 
activity,  the  spiritual  impetus  which  was  now  shaping  itself  into 
Prophetism.  And  here  we  strike  the  second  chord,  that  other  source 
and  spring  of  Israel's  life,  which  stiil  yields  living  waters.  In  Hebrew 
prophecy  we  have  no  crumbling  monument  of  perishable  stone,  the 
silent  witness  of  a  past  that  is  dead  and  gone,  but  the  quickening 
breath  of  the  spirit  itself,  the  words  that  live  and  burn,  the  something 
that  is  still  alive  and  life-giving  because  it  holds  the  soul  of  a  {>eople, 
the  spirit  that  can  not  die.  The  prophets  owned  the  clearer  vision  that 
j)ierced  below  tlie  surface  and  penetrated  to  the  hidden  meaning,  the 
moral  and  spiritual  interpretation  of  the  law  in  contrast  with  its  outer 
sense. 

Throughout  their  history  we  find  that  the  Jews  as  a  nation  have 
been  the  "  God-intoxicated"  race,  intent  upon  the  problem  of  under- 
standing him  and  his  ways  with  them,  his  rulings  of  their  destiny. 
With  this  idea,  whether  in  a  high  form  or  a  law,  in  spiritual  or  mate- 
rial fashion,  their  whole  existence  has  been  identified. 

lu  the  Hebrew  writings  we  trace  not  so  much  the  development  of 
a  people  as  of  an  Idea  that  constantly  grows  in  strength  and  purity. 
The  petty,  tribal  god,  cruel  and  partisan,  like  the  gods  aronnd  him, 
becomes  the  univer.«al  and  eternal  God,  who  fills  all  time  and  space,  all 
heaven  and  earth,  and  beside  whom  no  other  power  exists.  ThnuiQ^h- 
out  nature,  His  will  is  law,  His  fiat  goes  forth,  and  the  stars  obey  Him 
in  theircourse,  the  winds  and  waves  :  "  Fire  and  liail,  snow  and  vapors, 
stormy  wind,  fulfilling  His  woid." 

"The  lightnings  do  His  bidding  and  say  '  Here  we  are'  when  He 
commands  them." 

But  not  alone  iu  the  physical  realm,  still  more  is  He  the  moral 
ruler  of  the  Universe ;  and  here  we  come  upon  the  core  of  the  He- 
brew conception,  its  true  grandeur  and  originality,  upon  which  the 
whole  stress  was  laid,  namely,  that  it  is  only  in  the  moral  sphere, 
only  as  a  moral  being  that  man  can  enter  into  relation  with  his 
Maker,  and  the  Maker  of  the  Universe,  and  come  to  any  understand- 
ing of  Him. 

"Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ?     Canst  thou  find  out 


THE   OUTLOOK   OB^   JUDAISM.  299 

the  Almighty  unto  perfection?     It  is  as  high  as  heaven;   what  canst 
thou  do?  deeper  than  hell ;   what  canst  thou  know?" 

Not  through  the  finite,  limited  intellect,  nor  any  outward  sense- 
perception,  but  only  through  the  moral  sense,  do  these  earnest  teach- 
ers bid  us  seek  God,  who  reveals  Himself  in  the  law  whicli  is  at  once 
human  and  divine,  the  voice  of  duty  and  of  conscience,  animating  the 
soul  of  man.  Like  the  stars,  he  too  can  obey,  and  then  his  righteous- 
ness will  shine  forth  as  the  noon-day  sun,  his  going  forth  will  be  like 
the  dawn.  It  is  this  breadth  of  the  divine  that  vitalizes  the  pages  of 
the  Hebrew  prophets  and  their  moral  precepts.  It  is  the  blending  of 
the  two  ideals,  the  complete  and  absolute  identification  of  the  moral 
and  religious  life,  so  that  each  can  be  interpreted  in  terms  of  the 
other,  the  moral  life  saturated  and  fed,  sustained  and  sanctified  by  the 
divine,  the  religious  life  merely  a  divinely  ordained  morality,  this  it 
is,  that  constitutes  the  essence  of  their  teachings,  the  unity  and  grand 
simplicity  of  their  ideal.  The  link  was  never  broken  between  the  hu- 
man and  the  divine,  between  conduct  and  its  motive,  religion  and 
morality,  nor  obscured  by  any  cloudy  abstractions  of  theology  or  meta- 
physics. Their  God  was  a  God  whom  the  people  could  understand; 
no  mystic  figure  relegated  to  the  skies,  but  a  very  present  power, 
working  upon  earth,  a  personality  very  clear  and  distinct,  very  human 
one  might  almost  say,  who  mingled  in  human  affiiirs,  whose  word  was 
swift  and  sure,  and  whose  path  so  plain  to  follow,  "that  wayfaring 
men,  though  fools,  should  not  err  therein."  What  He  required  was  no 
impossible  ideal,  but  simply  to  do  justice,  to  love  mercy,  and  walk 
humbly  before  Him.  What  He  promised  was  :  "  Seek  ye  me  and  ye 
shall  live."  How  can  one  fail  to  be  im[)ressed  by  the  heroic  mold  of 
these  austere,  impassioned  souls,  and  by  the  richness  of  the  soil  that 
gave  them  birth  at  a  time  when  spiritual  thought  had  scarcely  dawned 
upon  the  world.  The  pro})hets  were  the  "  high  lights"  of  Judaism  ; 
but  the  light  fiiiled,  the  voices  ceased,  and  prophetism  died  out.  In 
spite  of  its  broad  ethical  and  social  basis,  its  seeming  universality,  it 
never  became  the  religion  of  the  masses,  because  in  reality  it  is  the 
religion  of  the  few,  the  elect  and  chosen  of  God,  who  know  and  feel 
the  beauty  of  His  holiness. 

The  people  needed  something  more  penetrating  and  persuasive,  or 
else  something  more  congenial  to  their  actual  development  at  the  time; 
namely,  some  concrete  and  sensuous  form  in  which  Deity  could  be 
brought  into  life.  Therefore  tlie  code  was  devised,  or  rather  it  evolved 
and  grew  like  a  natural  growth  out  of  the  conditions  and  constitution 
of  Judaism.  The  "  Torah "  was  literally  the  body  of  the  law,  in 
which  tlie  spirit  was  incased  as  in  a  mummy  shroud.      In   order  that 


300  STATE   AND    SOCIETY. 

Israel  should  survive,  should  continue  to  exist  at  all  in  the  midst  of 
the  ruins  that  were  falling  around  it,  and  the  darkness  upon  which  it 
was  entering,  it  was  necessary  that  this  close,  internal  organization, 
this  mesh  and  network  of  law  and  practice,  of  regulated  usage  cover- 
ing the  most  insignificant  acts  of  life,  knitting  them  together  as  with 
nerve  and  sinew,  and  invulnerable  to  any  catastophe  from  without, 
should  take  the  pjace  of  all  external  prop  and  form  of  unity.  The 
whole  outer  framework  of  life  fell  away.  The  kingdom  perished,  the 
temple  fell,  the  people  scattered.  They  ceased  to  be  a  nation,  they 
ceased  to  be  a  church,  and  yet,  iudissolubly  bound  by  these  invisible 
chains,  as  fine  as  silk,  as  strong  as  iron,  they  presented  an  impene- 
trable front  to  the  outside  world,  they  became  more  intensely  national, 
more  exclusive  and  sectarian,  more  concentrated  in  their  individuality 
than  they  had  ever  been  before.  The  Talmud  came  to  reinforce  the 
Pentateuch,  and  Rabbinism  intensified  Judaism,  which  thereby  lost  its 
power  to  expand,  its  claim  to  become  a  universal  religion,  and  re- 
mained the  prerogative  of  a  peculiar  people. 

With  fire  and  sword  the  Christian  era  dawned  for  Israel.  Jeru- 
salem was  besieged,  the  temple  fired,  the  Holy  Mount  in  fiames,  and  a 
million  people  ])erished,  a  fitting  prelude  to  the  long  tragedy  that  has 
not  ended  yet,  the  martyrdom  of  eighteen  centuries.  Death  in  every 
form,  by  flood,  by  fire,  and  with  every  torture  that  could  be  con- 
ceived, left  a  track  of  blood  through  history,  the  crucified  of  the 
nations.  Strangers  and  wanderers  in  every  age,  and  eveiy  land,  call- 
ing no  man  friend,  and  no  spot  home.  Witl)al  the  ignominy  of  the 
Ghetto,  a  living  death.  Dark,  pitiable,  ignoble  destiny!  Magnifi- 
cent, heroic,  unconquerable  destiny,  luminous  witli  self-sacrifice,  un- 
written heroism,  devotion  to  an  ideal,  a  cause  believed  in,  and  a  name 
held  sacred!  But  destiny  still  unsolved;  martyrdom  not  yet  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory. 

In  our  modern  rushing  days,  life  changes  with  such  swiftness  that 
it  is  diflicult  even  to  follow  its  rapid  movement.  During  tlie  last  hun- 
dred years,  Judaism  has  undergone  more  modification  than  during  the 
previous  thousand  years.  The  French  Revolution  sounded  a  note  of 
freedom  so  loud,  so  clamorous  that  it  pierced  the  Ghetto  walls,  and 
found  its  way  to  the  imprisoned  souls.  The  gates  were  thrown  open, 
the  light  streamed  in  from  the  outside,  and  the  Jew  entered  the  mod- 
ern world.  As  if  by  enciiantnient,  the  spell  which  had  bound  him 
hand  and  foot,  body  and  soul,  was  broken,  and  his  mind  and  spirit  re- 
leased from  thrall,  sprang  into  re-birth  and  vigor.  Eager  for  life  in 
every  form  and  in  every  direction,  with  unu.sed  pent-up  vitality,  he 
pressed   to  the   front,  and  crowded  the  avenues  where  life  was  most 


THE   OUTLOOK   OF   JUDAISM.  301 

crowded,  thought  and  action  most  stimulated.  And  in  order  to  do  this 
movement,  naturally  and  of  necessity,  he  began  to  disengage  himself 
from  the  toils  in  which  he  was  involved,  to  unwind  himself,  so  to 
speak,  from  fold  after  fold  of  outworn  and  outlandish  customs.  Cast- 
ing off  the  outer  shell  or  skeleton,  which,  like  the  bony  covering  of  the 
tortoise,  serves  as  armijr,  at  the  same  time  that  it  impedes  all  move- 
ment and  progress,  as  well  as  inner  growth,  Judaism  thought  to  revert 
to  its  original  type,  the  pure  and  simple  monotheism  of  the  early  days, 
the  simple  creed  that  Right  is  Might,  the  simple  law  of  justice  among 
men.  Divested  of  its  spiritual  mechanism,  absolutely  without  myth 
or  dogma  of  any  kind,  save  the  all-embracing  unity  of  God,  taxing  so 
little  the  credulity  of  men,  no  religion  seemed  so  fitted  to  withstand 
the  storm  and  stress  of  modern  thouglit,  the  doubt  and  skepticism  of  a 
critical  and  scientific  age  that  has  played  such  havoc  with  time- 
honored  creeds.  And  having  rid  himself,  as  he  proudly  believed, 
of  his  own  superstitions,  naturally  the  Jew  had  no  inclination  to 
adopt  what  he  looked  upon  as  the  superstitions  of  others.  He 
was  still  as  much  as  ever  the  Jew;  as  far  as  ever  removed  from 
the  Christian  standpoint  and  outlook,  the  Christian  philosophy  and 
solution  of  life. 

Broad  and  tolerant  as  either  side  might  consider  itself,  there  was 
a  fundamental  disagrement  and  opposition,  almost  a  difl^erent  make- 
up, a  different  caliber  and  attitude  of  soul,  fostered  by  centuries  of 
mutual  alienation  and  distrust.  To  be  a  Jew  w-as  still  something  spe- 
cial, something  inherent,  that  did  not  depend  upon  any  external  con- 
formity or  non-conformity,  any  peculiar  mode  of  life.  The  tremen- 
dous background  of  the  past,  of  traditions  and  associations  so  entirely 
apart  from  those  of  the  people  among  whom  the}'  dwelt,  threw  them 
into  strong  relief.  They  were  a  marked  race  always,  upon  whom  an 
indelible  stamp  was  set,  a  nation  that  cohered  not  as  a  political  unit, 
but  as  a  single  family,  through  ties  the  most  sacred,  the  most  vital 
and  intimate,  of  parent  to  child,  of  brother  and  sister,  bound  still 
more  closely  toe:ether  through  a  common  fate  of  sufl^ering.  And  yet 
they  were  every-where  living  among  Christians,  making  part  of  Chris- 
tian communities  and  mixing  freely  among  them  for  all  the  business 
of  life,  all  material  and  temporal  ends.  Thus  the  spiritual  and  secu- 
lar life  which  had  been  absolutely  one  with  the  Jew,  grew  apart  in 
his  own  sphere,  as  well  as  in  his  intercourse  with  the  Christians — the 
divorce  ^vas  complete  between  religion  and  the  daily  life.  The  outer 
Avorld  allured  him,  and  the  false  gods,  whom  the  nations  around  him 
Avorshiped  :  Success,  Power,  and  Pride  of  Life  and  of  the  Intellect. 
He  threw  himself  full  tilt  into  the  arena  where  the  clash  was  loudest. 


302  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

the  press  thickest,  the  struggle  keenest  to  compete  aud  outstrip  one 
another,  which  we  moderns  call  life.  All  his  faculties  were  sharpened 
to  it,  and  in  his  eagerness  he  forgot  his  proper  birthright.  He  drifted 
away  from  his  spiritual  bearings,  and  lost  sight  of  spiritual  horizons. 
He,  the  man  of  the  past,  became  essentially  the  man  of  to-day,  with 
interest  centered  on  the  present,  the  actual,  with  intellect  set  free  to 
grapple  with  the  problems  of  the  hour,  and  solve  them  by  its  own  un- 
aided light.-  Liberal,  progressive,  humanitarian,  he  might  become, 
but  always  along  human  lines;  the  link  was  gone  with  any  larger, 
more  satisfying  and  comprehensive  life.  Religion  had  detached  itself 
from  life,  not  only  in  its  trivial,  every-day  concerns,  but  in  its  highest 
aims  and  aspirations. 

The  something  that  the  Hebrew  prophets  had,  that  made  their 
moral  teaching  vital  aud  luminous,  was  lacking,  the  larger  vision 
reaching  out  to  the  unseen,  the  abiding  sense  of  an  eternal  will  aud 
purpose  underlying  human  transient  schemes,  an  eternal  presence, 
transfusing  all  of  life  as  with  a  hidden  flame,  so  that  love  of  country, 
love  of  right,  love  of  man,  were  not  alone  human  thing.s,  buO  also 
divine,  because  they  were  embraced  and  focused  in  a  single  living 
unity,  that  was  the  love  of  God.  How  different  now  the  cold,  ab- 
stract and  passive  unity,  the  only  article  of  their  faith  uow  left  to 
them,  that  had  no  hold  whatever,  no  touch  with  life  at  any  poiut,  no 
kindling  power!  In  what  of  positive  and  vital  did  their  Judaism  con- 
sist? Were  they  n(jt  rather  Jews  by  negation,  by  opposition,  non- 
Christians,  first  and  foremost?  Aud  here  was  just  the  handle,  just 
the  grievance  for  their  enemies  to  seize  upon.  Every  charge  would  fit. 
Behold  the  Jew  !  Behold  one  not  of  ourselves  who  would  be  one  of  us  ? 
Our  masters  even,  who  would  wrest  our  prizes  from  us,  whose  keen 
wits  and  clever  fingers  have  somehow  touched  the  inner  springs  that 
rule  our  world  to-day,  and  set  its  wheels  in  motion.  Every  cry  could 
shape  itself  against  them,  every  class  could  take  alarm,  and  every 
prejudice  go  loose.  And  hence  the  Proteus  form  of  anti-Semitism. 
Wherever  the  social  conditions  are  most  unstable,  the  equilibrium  most 
threatened  and  easily  disturbed,  in  barbarous  Russia,  liberal  France 
and  philosophic  Germany,  the  problem  is  most  acute,  but  there  is  no 
countiy  now,  civilized  or  uncivilized,  where  some  echo  of  it  has  not 
reached;  even  in  our  own  free-breathing  America,  some  wave  has 
come  to  die  upon  our  shores. 

What  answers  have  we  for  ourselves  aud  for  the  world  in  this, 
the  trial-hour  of  our  faith,  the  crucial  test  of  Judaism?  We,  each 
of  us,  must  look  into  our  own  hearts,  and  see  what  Judaism  stands 
for    in    that    iruur   shrine,   what    it    holds    that    satisfies    oui-  deepest 


THE    OUTLOOK    OF  JUDAISM.  303 

needs,  consoles  and  fortifies  us,  compensates  for  every  sacrifice, 
every  humiliation  we  may  l)e  called  upon  to  endure,  so  that  we 
count  it  a  glory,  not  a  siiame  to  suffer.  Will  national  or  personal 
loyalty  suffice  for  this,  when  our  personality  is  not  touched,  our  na- 
tionality is  merged  ?  Will  pride  of  family  or  race  take  away  the  sting, 
the  stigma?  Lo!  we  have  turned  the  shield  and  persecution  becomes 
our  opportunity!  "Those  that  were  in  darkness,  upon  them  the  light 
hath  shiued."  What  is  the  meaning  of  this  exodus  from  Russia,  from 
Poland,  these  long  black  lines,  crossing  the  frontiers  or  crushed  within 
the  pale — these  "  despised  and  rejected  of  men,"  emerging  from 
their  Ghettos,  scarcely  able  to  bear  the  light  of  day?  Many  of  them 
will  never  see  the  Promised  Land,  and  for  those  who  do,  cruel  will  be 
the  sufTeriucr  before  thev  enter,  long  and  difficult  will  be  the  task  and 
process  of  assimilation  and  regeneration.  But  for  us,  who  stand  upon 
the  shore,  in  the  full  blessed  light  of  freedom  and  watch  at  last  the 
ending  of  that  weary  pilgrimage  through  the  centuries,  how  great  the 
responsibility,  how  great  the  occasion,  if  only  we  can  rise  to  it !  Let 
us  not  think  our  duty  ended,  Avhen  we  have  taken  in  the  wanderers, 
given  them  food  and  shelter,  and  initiated  them  into  the  sharp  daily 
struggle  to  exist  upon  which  we  are  all  embarked  ;  nor  yet  guarding 
their  exclusiveness,  when  we  leave  them  to  their  narrow  rites  and 
limiting  observance,  until,  breaking  free  from  these,  they  find  them- 
selves, like  their  emancipated  brethren  elsewhere,  adrift  on  a  blank 
sea  of  indifference  and  materialism.  If  Judaism  would  be  any  thing 
in  the  world  to-day  it  must  be  a  spiritual  force.  Only  then  can  it  be 
true  to  its  special  mission,  the  spirit,  not  the  letter,  of  its  truth. 

Away  then  with  all  the  Ghettos  and  with  spiritual  isolation  in 
every  form,  and  let  the  "  spirit  blow  where  it  listeth."  The  Jew  must 
change  his  attitude  before  the  world,  and  come  into  spiritual  fellow- 
ship with  those  around  him.  John,  Paul,  Jesus  himself,  we  can  claim 
them  all  for  our  own.  We  do  not  want  "missions"  to  convert  us. 
We  can  not  become  Presbyterians,  Episcopalians,  members  of  any 
dividing  sect,  "teaching  for  doctrines  the  opinions  of  men."  Chris- 
tians as  well  as  Jew's  need  the  larger  unity  that  shall  embrace  them 
all,  the  unity  of  spirit,  not  of  doctrine. 

Mankind  at  large  may  not  be  ready  for  a  universal  religion,  but  let 
the  Jews,  with  their  prophetic  instinct,  their  deep,  spiritual  insight, 
set  the  example  and  give  the  ideal. 

The  world  has  not  yet  fathomed  the  secret  of  its  redemption,  and 
"  salvation  may  yet  again  be  of  the  Jews." 

The  times  are  full  of  signs.  On  every  side  there  is  a  call,  a  chal- 
lenge and  awakening.     Out  of  the  heart  of  our  materialistic  civilization 


304  STATE   AND   SOCIETY. 

has  come  the  cry  of  the  spirit  hungering  for  its  food,  "  the  bread  with- 
out money  and  without  j)rice,"  the  bread  which  money  can  not  buy, 
and  "  tliirsting  for  the  living  w^ateis,  which,  if  a  man  drink,  he  shall  not 
thirst  again."  What  the  world  needs  to-day,  not  alone  the  Jews,  who 
have  borne  the  yoke,  but  the  Christians,  who  bear  Christ's  name,  and 
persecute,  and  wiio  have  built  up  a  civilization  so  entirely  at  variance 
with  the  principles  He  taught — what  we  all  need.  Gentiles  and  Jews 
alike,  is  not  so  much  "a  new  body  of  doctrine,"  as  Mr.  Claude  Monte- 
fiore  suggests,  but  a  new  spirit  put  into  life  which  will  re-fashion  it 
upon  a  nobler  plan,  and  consecrate  it  anew  to  higher  purposes  and 
ideals.  Science  has  done  its  work,  clearing  away  the  dead  wood  of 
ignorance  and  superstition,  enlarging  the  vision  and  opening  out  the 
path.  It  is  for  religion  now  to  fill  with  spirit  and  with  life  the  facts 
that  knowledge  gives  us,  to  breatiie  a  living  soul  into  the  universe. 
"  Return  unto  me,  and  I  will  return  unto  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts." 
"All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray,"  Christians  and  Jews  alike  have 
turned  from  the  true  path,  worshiping  upon  the  liigh  places  and  un- 
der every  green  tree,  falling  down  before  idols  of  gold  and  silver,  and 
making  graven  images  of  every  earthly  and  every  heavenly  thing. 
Thus  have  we  builded  a  kingdom,  wholly  of  the  earth,  solid  and  stately 
to  the  eve  of  sense,  but  hollow  and  honeycombed  with  .falsehood,  and 
whose  foundations  are  so  insecure  that  they  tremble  at  every  earthly 
shock,  every  attempt  at  leadjustment,  and  we  half  expect  to  see  the 
brilliant  pageant  crumble  before  our  sight  and  disappear  like  the  un- 
substantial fabric  of  a  dream.  Christians  and  Jews  alike,  "  have  we 
not  all  one  Father,  hatli  not  one  God  created  us?"  Remember  to  what 
you  are  called,  you  who  claim  belief  in  a  living  God  who  is  a  Spirit,  and 
who  therefore  must  be  worshiped  "  in  spirit  and  in  truth," — not  with 
vain  forms  and  meaningless  service,  nor  yet  in  the  world's  glittering 
shapes,  the  work  of  men's  hands  or  brains, — but  in  the  ever-growing, 
ever-deepening  love  and  knowledge  of  His  truth  and  its  showing  forth 
to  men.  Once  more  let  the  Holy  Spirit  descend  and  dwell  among  you, 
in  your  life  to-day,  as  it  did  upon  your  holy  men,  your  prophets  of  the 
oldon  times,  lighting  the  world  as  it  did  for  them  with  that  radiance 
of  tiie  skies  ;  and  so  make  known  the  faith  that  is  in  you,  "  for  by 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 


WHAT    HAS   JUDAISM   DONE    FOR   WOMAN?  305 


WHAT  HAS  JUDAISM  DOiNE  FOR  WOMAN? 

BY  MISS  HENRIETTA  SZOLD. 


The  whole  education  conferred  by  Judaism  lies  in  the  principle 
that  it  did  not  assign  to  woman  an  exceptional  position  ;  yet,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  taking  cognizance  of  the  exceptional  position  assigned 
to  woman  by  brute  force,  and  occupied  by  her  on  account  of  her  phys- 
ical coustitution  and  natural  duties,  Judaism  made  that  education  ef- 
fectual and  uninterrupted  in  its  effects. 

lu  the  tangled  maze  of  history,  let  us  single  out  the  thread  that 
marks  the  development  of  Jewish  woman.  In  Jewish  history,  as  in 
that  of  the  rest  of  mankind,  leaders  are  only  mile-stones. 

Our  question  calls  for  the  spiritual  data  about  the  tyoical  woman 
whom  Judaism  has  prepared  for  nineteenth  century  work.  To  dis- 
cover them,  we  must  go  back  to  twice  nineteen  hundred  years  ago,  to 
the  woman  that  presided  over  the  tent  of  Abraham. 

In  that  tent,  whatever  incipient  Judaisfn  did  for  man,  that  pre- 
cisely it  did  for  woman :  it  made  man,  created  male  and  female, 
aware  of  his  human  dignity,  and  laid  it  upon  him  as  a  duty  to  main- 
tain that  dignity.  With  the  defining  of  man's  relations  to  his  family, 
begins  the  refinement,  the  humanity  of  civilization. 

Abraham  stands  out  in  a  historic  picture  of  mankind  as  the  typi- 
cal father.  He  it  was  of  whom  it  was  known  that  he  would  "com- 
mand his  children  and  his  household  after  him,  that  they  shall  keep 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  righteousness  and  justice." 

What  was  Sarah's  share  in  this  paramount  work  of  education? 
Ishmael  was  to  be  removed  in  order  that  Isaac,  the  disciple  of  right- 
eousness and  justice,  might  not,  by  bad  example,  be  lured  away  from 
"  the  way  of  the  Lord."  In  connection  with  this  plan,  wholly  educa- 
tional in  its  aims,  it  is  enjoined  upon  Abraham  :  "In  all  that  Sarah 
may  say  unto  thee,  hearken  unto  her  voice." 

The  next  generation  again  illustrates,  not  the  sameness  in  func- 
tion, but  the  equality  in  position,  of  man  and  woman.  Isaac  and 
Rebekkah  differ  in  their  conception  of  educational  disci2:)liue  and 
factors. 

20 


306  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

Yet  whatever  may  have  been  the  difFerence  of  opiuion  between 
them  with  regard  to  interference  in  their  chihlren's  affairs,  before  their 
cliildren,  father  and  mother  are  completely  at  one,  for  when  the  first 
suspicion  of  displeasure  comes  to  Esau,  it  reaches  him  in  Isaac's  name 
alone.  We  are  told  that  "  then  saw  Esau  that  the  daughters  of  Ca- 
naan were  evil  in  the  eyes  of  Isaac,  his  father."  Isaac,  the  executive, 
had  completely  adopted  the  tactics  of  Rebekkah,  the  advisory  branch  of 
the  government. 

In  Rebekkah  we  are  shown  the  first  social  innovator,  the  first  be- 
ing to  act  contrary  to  tradition,  and  the  iron-bound  customs  of  society. 
She  refuses  to  yield  to  birth  its  rights,  in  a  case  in  which  were  involved 
the  higher  considerations  of  the  guardianship  of  truth.  And  this  re- 
former was  the  traditionally  conservative  woman,  Rebekkah. 

Such  are  the  ideals  of  equality  between  man  and  woman  that 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  days  of  the  Patriarchs.  Sucli,  further- 
more, was  the  basis  upon  which  the  position  of  woman  in  Judaism  was 
fixed,  and  such  in  turn,  the  ideal  toward  which  the  Jewish  woman  was 
to  aspire. 

Women  continued  to  be  held  in  high  esteem.  We  hear  of  the 
mothers  of  the  greatest  men,  of  Jochebed,  the  mother  of  Moses,  and 
of  Hannah,  the  mother  of  Samuel,  and  the  sole  director  of  his  career. 
We  still  hear  of  fathers  and  mothers  acting  in  equal  conjuuction,  as 
in  the  disastrous  youtli^of  Samson.  The  law  ranges  them  together  : 
"If  a  man  have  a  stubborn  and  rebellious  son,  who  hearkeneth  not 
to  the  voice  of  his  father,  or  to  the  voice  of  his  mother,  and  they 
chastise  him,  and  he  will  not  hearken  unto  them,  then  shall  his  father 
and  his  mother  lay  hold  on  him."  We  have  evidence  of  woman's  dig- 
nity in  the  parallel  drawn  by  the  prophets  between  the  relation  of  Is- 
rael to  God  and  that  of  a  wife  to  her  husband,  most  beautifully  in  this 
passage  Avhich  distinguished  between  the  husband  of  a  Jewish  woman 
and  the  lord  of  a  mediaeval  Griseldis:  "And  it  shall  happen  at  that 
day,  .saith  the  Lord,  that  thou  shalt  call  me  I^hi  (my  husband),  and 
shalt  not  call  me  any  more  Ba'  all  (my  lord).  And  I  will  betroth 
thee  unto  me  forever :  yea,  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  lighteous- 
ness  and  justice,  and  in  loving  kindness,  and  in  mere)'.  And  I 
will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithfulness." 

But  Israel  was  a  backsliding  nation.  Even  its  purity  of  family 
life  was  sullied,  as  for  instance  at  Gibcah,  and  by  David.  Yet  it 
remains  true  that  throuirh  good  and  evil  times  the  ideals  wore  main- 
tained;  and  in  the  end  practice  was  influenced  into  conformity  with 
them.  Subtler  signs  than  gross  historic  events  show  both  truths — 
sliow  that  i)ractice  degenerated,  and  show  that  it  was  reconstructed 


WHAT    HAS   JUDAISM   DONE   FOR   WOMAN?  307 

on  the  basis  of  never-abandoned  ideals.  Emphatic  assertions  of  the 
exalted  position  of  women  are  dangerous.  They  involve  the  con- 
cession that  man  has  the  authority  to  establish  or  refuse,  instead 
of  leaving  the  economy  of  the  moral  world  as  God  has  ordained  it. 
Any  tendency  to  create  an  inequality,  be  it  to  the  detriment  or  to 
the  aggrandizement  of  woman,  is  fatal  to  her  true  dignity. 

The  prophet  Malachi  sets  forth  the  whole  misery  of  those  later 
days,  culminating  in  disregard  of  woman,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Jewish  principle  and  ideal  of  woman's  co-equality  with  man,  as  well  as 
the  cause  of  her  dethronement  from  his  side.  He  says:  "The  Lord 
hath  been  witness  between  thee  and  the  wife  of  thy  youth  against 
whom  thou  hast  indeed  dealt  treacherously  ;  yet  is  she  thy  companion 
and  the  wife  of  thy  covenant." 

The  last  of  the  prophets,  the  contemporary  of  the  Scribes,  ushers 
us  into  the  halls  of  the  Talmud.  Here  the  prophet's  utterances  still 
reverberate:  "  He  who  forsakes  the  love  of  his  youth,  God's  altar 
weeps  for  him  ;"  "A  man  should  be  careful  lest  he  afflict  his  wife,  for 
God  counts  her  tears."  Less  suggestive  of  disordered  affairs  is:  "  He 
who  sees  his  wife  die  before  him  has,  as  it  were,  been  present  at  the 
destruction  of  the  sanctuary  itself,  around  him  the  world  grows  dark." 
"  Love  your  wife  like  yourself,  honor  her  mere  than  yoiu'self,"  smacks 
of  the  equivocal  distinction  of  mediaeval  times,  and  of  a  convulsive 
desire  to  hide  the  existing  condition  of  affairs.  "  If  thy  wife  is  small, 
bend  down  to  her  to  take  counsel  from  her,"  indicates  a  return  to 
natural,  unstrained  relations.  "  He  who  marries  for  money,  his  chil- 
dren shall  be  a  curse  to  him,"  is  a  practical  maxim  applicable  not  only 
in  ancient  times,  and  finally,  the  early  ideal  is  realized  in  "A  man's 
home  means  his  wife." 

The  question  arises,  how  came  it  about  that  the  early  rea|lities 
turned  into  fit  subjects  for  poetry,  aphorism,  and  chivalrous  sayings, 
but  were  absent  from  eveiy-day  life  sufBcieutly  often  to  justify  the 
prophet's  wrath  ?  It  all  lies  in  this :  Israel's  sous  married  the  daughters 
not  of  a  stranger,  but  of  a  strange  god. 

It  was  the  Israelite's  crown  of  distinction  that  his  wife  was  his 
companion,  whose  equality  was  so  acknowledged  that  he  made  with  her 
a  covenant.  But  this  crown  was  dragged  in  the  mire  when  he  married 
the  daughter  of  a  strange  god. 

Direst  misfortune  taught  Israel  the  folly  of  worshiping  strange 
gods,  but  the  blandishments  of  the  daughters  of  a  strange  god  pro- 
duced the  enactment  of  many  a  law  by  the  rabbis  of  the  Talmud. 
Here  was  the  problem  that  confronted  them  :  Israel's  ideals  of  woman- 
hood were  high,  but  the  nations  around  acted  according  to  a  brutal 


308  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

standard,  and  Israel  was  not  likely  to  remain  untainted.  They  solved 
it  in  a  truly  Jewish  way — both  in  the  Jewish  spirit  and  on  a  Jewish 
basis.  As  always  in  Judaism,  they  dealt  with  a  condition,  and  strove^ 
by  modifying  it,  to  realize  the  ideals  of  their  theory. 

Judaism  had  taken  cognizance  of  the  fact  that  tlie  practice  of  the 
nations  about,  with  regard  to  women,  varied  widely  from  Jewish  ideals. 
Clear  of  vision,  the  Lawgiver-Prophet  could  not  fail  to  see  that  Israel,, 
stiff-necked,  unmindful  of  its  mission,  participating  in  the  human  fault 
of  asserting  brute  strength  over  the  physically  weak,  would  soon  adopt 
the  lower  standards  unless  restrained  by  iron-handed  law.  Thus  Mosaic 
legislation  recognizes  the  exceptional  position  occupied  by  woman,  and 
profits  by  its  knowledge  thereof  to  lay  down  stringent  regulations  or- 
dering the  relation  of  the  sexes.  We  have  the  rights  of  Avomen 
guarded  with  respect  to  inheritance,  to  giving  in  marriage,  to  tlie 
marriage  relation,  and  with  regard  to  divorce.  But  woman's  greatest 
safeguard  lay  in  the  fact  that  both  marriage  and  divorce  among  the 
Jews  were  civil  transactions,  connected  with  a  certain  amount  of 
formality. 

An  authority  describes  the  Jewish  view  of  marriage  as  standing 
between  that  of  the  common  law,  which,  according  to  Blackstone, 
"considers  marriage  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  civil  contract,"  and 
that  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  which  "  holds  marriage  to  be  a 
sacrament  and  as  such  indissoluble."  He  says  :  "Between  these  two 
extremes  stands  that  of  the  Jewish  law."  The  act  of  concluding  mar- 
riage is  there  certainly  also  considered  as  a  contract,  which  requires 
the  consent  of  both  parties  and  the  performance  of  certain  formalities 
similar  to  other  contracts,  and  which  under  certain  circumstances  can 
be  dissolved.  But,  inasmuch  as  marriage  concerns  a  relation  w'hich  is 
based  on  morality  and  implies  the  most  sacred  duties,  it  is  more  than 
a  mere  civil  contract.  In  such  a  contract,  the  mutual  duties  and 
rights  emanate  from  the  optional  agreement  of  the  contracting  parties, 
while  those  who  enter  upon  the  state  of  married  life  must  submit  to 
the  reciprocal  duties  which  have  been  imposed  by  religion  and  morality. 
Adultery  is  not  merely  infidelity  toward  the  conjugal  partner,  but  a 
violation  of  a  divine  order,  a  crime  which  can  not  be  condoned  by  the 
offended  party;  it  invalidates  the  very  foundation  of  that  marriage, 
so  as  to  make  its  continuation  absolutely  impossible.  Under  Jewish 
jurisdiction,  the  husband  was  compelled  to  divorce  his  wife  who  had 
been  foimd  guilty  of  adultery. 

The  laws  and  regulations  of  divorce  are  full  and  detailed.  A 
passage  often  quoted,  in  order  to  give  an  idea  of  the  Jewish  divorce 


WHAT   HAS   JUDAISM    DONE   FOR    WOMAN  ?  309 

law,  is  tlie  following  :  "  The  school  of  Shamraai  " — inclining  to  Biblical 
ordinances — "says  that  a  wife  can  be  divorced  only  on  account  of  in- 
fidelity. The  school  of  Hillel  says  that  the  hnsband  is  not  obliged  to 
give  a  .plausible  motive  f  )r  divorce — he  may  say  that  she  spoiled  his 
meal.  R.  Akiba  expresses  the  same  idea  in  another  way  :  he  may 
say  that  he  has  found  a  more  beautiful  woman."  And  those  that  wish 
to  throw  contempt  upon  the  Jewish  law  add  that  the  school  of  Hillel, 
the  milder  school,  is  followed  in  practical  decisions.  This  is  one  of  the 
•cases  in  which  not  the  whole  truth  is  told.  In  the  first  place,  a  woman 
has  the  same  right  to  apply  for  a  divorce,  without  assigning  any  reason 
which  motives  of  delicacy  may  prompt  her  to  withhold.  The  idea  un- 
derlying this  seeming  laxity  is,  that  when  a  man  or  a  woman  is  willing 
to  apply  f)r  a  divorce  on  so  trivial  a  ground,  then,  regard  and  love 
having  vanished,  in  the  interest  of  morality  a  divorce  had  better  be 
granted,  after  due  efforts  have  been  made  to  effect  a  reconciliation. 
In  reality,  however,  divorce  laWs  were  fur  from  being  lax.  The  facts 
that  a  woman  who  applied  for  a  divorce  lost  her  dowry,  and  iu  almost 
all  cases  a  man  who  applied  for  it  had  to  pay  it,  would  suffice  to  re- 
strain the  tendency.  Rabbinowicz  remarks  about  a  certain  law,  that 
it  shows  that  the  rabbis  sought  to  diminish  divorce  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. Moreover,  and  tliis  is  the  clinching  fact,  divorces  were  very 
rare. 

The  important  points  characterizing  the  Jewish  divorce  law,  and 
distinguishing  it  far  beyond  that  of  other  races  of  antiquity,  are  these  : 
A  man,  as  a  rule,  could  not  divorce  Ins  wife  without  providing  for 
her;  he  could  not  summarily  send  her  from  him,  as  was  and  is  the 
custom  in  eastern  countries,  but  was  obliged  to  give  her  a  duly  drawn 
up  bill  of  divorcement;  and  women  as  well  as  men  could  sue  for  a 
divorce. 

Besides  these  important  provisions  regulating  woman's  estate, 
there  are  various  intimations  in  the  Talmud  of  delicate  regard  paid  to 
the  finer  sensibilities  of  women. 

These  and  such  are  the  provisions  which,  originating  in  the  hoary 
past,  have  intrenched  the  Jewess'  position  even  unto  this  day.  What- 
ever she  may  be,  she  is  through  them.  But  what  is  she?  You  have 
heard  of  the  Jewish  custom  which  bids  the  Jewish  mother,  after  her 
preparations  for  the  Sabbath  have  been  completed  on  Friday  evening, 
kindle  the  Sabbath  lamp.  That  is  symbolic  of  the  Jewish  woman's 
influence  on  her  own  home,  and  through  it  upon  larger  circles.  She 
is  the  inspirer  of  a  pure,  chaste  family  life,  whose  hallowing  influences 
-are  incalculable  ;  she  is  the  center  of  all  spiritual   endeavors,  the  con- 


310  STATE    AND   SOCIETY. 

fidante  and  fosterer  of  every  uudertakiug.  To  her  the  Talmudic  sen- 
tence applies:  "It  is  woman  alone  through  whom  God's  blessings  are 
vouchsafed  to  a  house.  She  teaches  the  children,  speeds  the  husband 
to  the  place  of  worship  and  instruction,  Avelcomes  him  when  he  returns, 
keeps  the  house  godly  and  pure,  and  God's  blessings  rest  upon  all  these 
things." 


ORGANIZED   FORCES. 


A  SABBATH-SCHOOL  UNION. 

By  dr.  8.  HECIIT. 


In  presenting  the  subject  of  "Sabbath-School  Union,"  on  this 
memorable  occasion,  as  one  of  the  topics  falling  under  the  head  of 
"  What  can  Organized  Forces  do  for  Judaism  ?"  I  do  not  presume 
upon  any  startlingly  new  or  original  ideas,  calculated  to  revolutionize 
the  status  of  Judaism  in  America. 

Recognizing,  moreover,  the  soberness  of  the  question  which  on  its 
very  face  precludes  alike  flights  of  fancy,  bursts  of  eloquence,  and 
depths  of  erudition,  I  will  not  attempt  more  than  a  plain,  matter-of- 
fact  exposition  of  the  subject. 

I  do  hope,  however,  to  be  able  to  say  something,  born  of  a  deep 
love  and  earnest  solicitude  for  our  ancestral  religion.  The  subject  as- 
signed to  me  touching  the  future  of  Judaism,  concerning  the  coming 
men  and  women  in  Israel,  is  so  near  my  heart,  its  import  and  effect  are 
far-reaching,  that  I  unhesitatingly  declare  as  my  innermost  conviction  : 
"Within  the  broad  limits  of  the  modern  rabbi's  activity,  there  is  no 
aim  worthier  of  his  best  and  noblest  efforts  than  that  which  affects  the 
moral  and  religious  growth  of  the  young."  Here  is  the  point  in  which 
all  the  hopes,  aims  and  aspirations  of  Judaism  converge.  All  that  is 
good  and  commendable  in  the  Jew,  all  that  tends  to  make  him  and  his 
religion  strong,  respectable  and  respected,  has  its  seat,  its  root,  in  the 
young.  And  when  we  read  that  play  of  words  in  the  ancient  litera- 
ture y^)'2  nSk  y^^  {<1pn  bi^,  it  seems  to  strike  the  key-note 
for  this  consideration. 

To  my  mind  "l^JD  and  *|*^1D  are  to  a  great  extent  interchange- 
able terras,  and  if  Judaism  be  indeed,  as  we  hear  it  so  often  and  so 
persistently  claimed,  a  structure  upon  which  generations  to  come  shall 
have  to  build,  as  generations  past  have  builded,  it  clearly  follows  that 
the  builders  of  the  future  must  be  well,  must,  indeed,  be  better 
equipped  than  were  they  who  laid  the  foundation.  The  work  of  the 
future  requires  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  basic  conditions,  in  order 
that  the  superstructure  may  become  sound  and  safe  and  useful.  But 
it  requires  more.     The  builders  to  come  must  be  in  sympathy  and  har- 

(:]18) 


314  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

mony  with  the  founders,  to  be  sure,  but  they  must  possess  likewise,  the 
ability  of  happily  bleudiug  strength  with  beauty,  and  soundness  with 
grace. 

Such  equipment  for  the  builders  of  the  future  can  best,  and  per- 
haps solely,  be  supplied  or  furnished  by  the  proper  religious  training 
of  the  young.  And,  therefore,  I  feel  justified  in  repeating,  that  the 
noblest  task  of  the  rabbi  of  to-day  consists  in  that  training  of  the 
young  wiiich  gives  them  at  once  the  knowledge  of  right  and  truth  and 
the  means  practically  to  apply  that  knowledge  in  the  different  walks 
and  relations  of  life. 

Iq  making  these  emphatic  statements  concerning  the  necessity  of 
religious  education,  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  principles  on  this  point 
held  by  our  fathers  of  old  and  transmitted  by  them  to  their  posterity, 
even  to  us.     The  sacred  duty,  sacredly  performed  by  them,  was  ever 

"!tD77l  n!277,  to  learn  and  to  teach.  The  study  of  the  word  of  God 
occupied  the  time  and  attention  of  our  wisest  and  greatest  teachers, 
and  the  care  they  bestowed  upon  the  development  of  the  religious  life 
of  the  Jewish  youth  is  unremitting. 

But  I  am  dealing  with  the  present  time,  in  this  land  and  under 
modern  conditions,  and  these,  you  will  concede,  widely  differ  from  and 
strangely  contrast  with  the  times,  country  and  conditions  of  our  an- 
cestors. 

Here,  where  the  line  of  demarkation  between  secular  and  sectarian 
education  is  so  sharply  drawn  to-day,  that  the  state  recognizes  its  duty 
to  tiie  fnture  citizen  to  afford  iiim  an  opportunity  for  secular  education 
only;  under  existing  conditions,  which  absorb  almost  all  the  time,  in- 
terest and  attention  (^f  the  practical  man,  and  ignore  the  claims  of  the 
heart  and  tlie  soul;  the  religious  development  of  the  children  is  cer- 
tainly at  a  disadvantage  and  would  be  entirely  lost  were  it  not  for  the 
several  religious  iustitutions  estabiislied  and  maintained  by  the  religions. 

But  unable,  for  obvious  reasons,  to  transplant  to  this  country  the 
seats  of  learning  which  flourished  in  Palestine  and  Babylon,  or  their 
metiiods,  dependent  on  the  time  which  the  secular  instruction  did  not 
claim,  we  learned  from,  and  adopted  the  plan  of  our  Christian  brethren, 
and  as  they  used  the  Sunday  for  their  work  among  the  young,  we  be- 
gan to  utilize  the  Sabbath,  or  the  Sunday,  or  both,  for  the  dissemina- 
tion of  religious  knowledge  among  our  children.  And  we  have  done 
well,  for  we  have  done  the  best  tliat  could  be  done  under  existing  cir- 
cumstances. False  pride  was  not  allowed  to  interfere  with,  and  on  the 
plea  of  "patterning  after  the  Christians,"  to  jeopardise  the  entire 
future  of  Judaism.     We  rather  exemplified  our  approval  of  the  defini- 


A    SABBATH-SCHOOL   UNION.  315 

tion  of  wisdom  as  given  by  the  interlocutors  of  Alexander  the  Great, 

«  4 

viz:   DIN*  ^D,!:    nr^^n    a^n    Nnn?\S*,  "  wise  is  he  who  adopts  the 
good  wherever  he  may  find  it." 

The  pioneer  work  in  the  direction  of  religious  education  among 
the  young  Israelites  in  America  was  done  by  that  noble  Jewess, 
Rebecca  Gratz,  of  blessed  memory,  who  some  fifty  years  ago  or  more 
established  the  first  school  for  religious  instruction  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  to  our  Sunday-schools, 
which  we  fondly  and  firmly  hope  may  become  a  power  for  good  in 
the  laud.  That  modest  beginning  in  the  city  of  brotherly  love,  that 
tiny  seed,  sown  upon  the  fertile  soil  of  a  religious  community,  has 
grown  and  brought  forth  a  rich  harvest,  so  that  to-day  there  are  but 
few  places,  if  any,  inhabited  by  Jews  in  which  the  religious  training 
of  the  young  does  not  receive  some  attention  and  care. 

Fifty  years  of  experimenting  are  behind  us,  half  a  century  of 
Sunday-school  work  has  completed  its  circuit.  What  are  the  results 
achieved?  Which  are  the  fruits  enabling  us  to  judge  of  the  quality 
of  the  tree  upon  which  they  have  grown  ?  Have  we  the  right  to  feel 
proud  of  the  one,  or  to  rejoice  in  the  other?  Are  our  schools  fulfilling 
their  ideal  purposes?  Do  they  fit  the  young  among  us  for  the  great 
work  devolving  upon  them  as  builders  of  the  future? 

Truth  compels  us  to  say  that,  with  all  the  efl^orts  and  energies 
which  have  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  young,  our  Sunday-schools 
still  remain  in  the  experimental  stage.  We  know,  of  course,  that 
there  is  an  interest  taken  in  the  religious  training  of  our  children, 
that  the  education  of  their  heart  is  not  ignored,  and  while  this  is  cer- 
tainly an  advantage,  it  is,  I  fear,  in  many  of  our  communities,  the 
only  one  we  may  boast.  For  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  the 
schools  connected  with  our  larcrer  and  wealthier  con greoa tion s  in  the 
large  cities  of  our  country,  and  of  those  smaller  communities,  fortu- 
nate enough  to  possess  some  able  and  devoted  persons,  to  conduct 
the  schools,  there  is  a  woeful  lack  of  system,  of  method,  and  of  aim. 
And  even  in  these  schools  there  exist  so  many  drawbacks,  that  the 
real  purpose  and  end  of  religious  education  is  lost  sight  of. 

Too  much  mechanism  and  rote  work  frequently  tend  to  defeat 
the  aims  of  religion,  the  heart  of  the  young  remains  cold,  and  their 
life  irresponsive  to  the  call  of  duty.  Children  are  drilled  on  historical 
data,  crammed  with  a  lot  of  names,  or  taught  to  memorize  abstract 
and  abstruse  pliilosophical  and  metaphysical  phrases,  and  then  ex- 
hibited as  prodigies  of  religious  knowledge.  The  ethical  beauties  of 
the  Bible  are  treated  superficially,  and  the  influence  upon  the  life  and 


316  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

deeds  of  the  youug  does  not  find  adequate  consideration.  So  that 
■children  are  able  faultlessly  to  recite  the  Decalogue,  without  knowing 
that  by  refusing  respect  to  their  parents,  love  to  their  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  kindness,  truth  and  justice  to  every  one,  they  are  guilty 
of  a  wrong,  or  acting  in  violation  of  the  "  Ten  Commandments."  They 
may  know  the  entire  history  of  Abraham  and  Lot,  of  Joseph  and  his 
brothers,  and  not  dream  of  the  virtue  of  peace,  of  the  duty  of  liospi- 
tality  and  kindness,  or  of  the  sin  of  jealousy,  of  selfishness,  and  indif- 
ference, which  that  history  means  to  emphasize. 

Many,  alas  !  who  have  passed  through  the  course  of  Sunday- 
school  instruction,  carry  with  them  into  life  unpleasant  recollections 
of  those  years,  look  back  upon  them  as  upon  a  time  most  uii profitably 
&pent,  nor  wonder  at  the  apatiiy  and  reluctance  c^iaracterizing  the  at- 
tendance of  their  younger  brothers  and  sisters,  or  of  their  children, 
reflecting,  as  they  are  in  a  large  measure,  their  own  sentitnents  and 
their  own  experience.  And  these  unsatisfactory  conditions  are  not 
ascribable  to  the  school,  they  can  not  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the  teach- 
ers or  pupils,  much  less  can  religion  be  held  responsible  for  them.  It 
is  a  chain  of  circumstances  which  militates  against  success,  and  frus- 
trates and  brings  to  nought  the"  best  intentions,  the  highesL  aims,  and 
loftiest  purposes.  To  break  that  chain,  that  force  of  circumstances  is 
the  imperative  requirement  of  the  time  upon  us. 

The  gloomy  and  depressing  atmospliere  of  many  a  school-room, 
the  misunderstandings  concerning  the  essence  of  religion,  the  inex- 
perience of  a  large  number  of  teachers,  the  insufliciency  of  existing 
text-books,  the  lack  of  plan,  method,  and  means,  which  so  largely  ex- 
ist, these,  and  many  other  drawbacks  to  successful  and  practical  re- 
ligious training,  combine  and  form  a  solid  and  impenetrable  phalanx 
against  which'  all,  even  the  best  individual  eflorts,  remain  fruitless. 
The  wonder  to-day,  therefore,  is  not  that  our  schools  arc  inadequate, — 
the  wonder  is  that  they  exist  at  all. 

What  then  is  the  remedy?  The  answer  as  briefly  as  possible  is: 
Concentration  of  forces.  Were  an  illustration,  an  object  lesson  needed, 
the  great  wonder  of  tiie  world  exhibited  in  this  city,  and  attracting 
n)illions  of  people  from  every  part  of  ilie  earth,  would  furnish  it.  The 
triumph  of  the  human  mind  here  achieved,  the  grandeur  of  the  work 
here  accomplislied,  the  creation  of  the  magic  "  Wliite  City  "  here  called 
into  existence,  eloquently  sets  forth  the  answer  to  the  question  here 
under  consideration,  "  What  can  organized  forces  do?" 

However  great  the  men,  however  skillful  the  mechanic,  however 
practical,  inventive,  and  original  the  individuals  may  have  been,  who 
were  active  in  the  production  of  these  marvelous   results,  they  could 


A    SABBATH-SCHOOL   UNION,  317 

not  have  been  obtained  without  the  concentration  and  organization  of 
the  many  individual  forces  which  entered  as  factors  into  this  stupen- 
dous enterprise. 

It  is  so  in  the  domain  of  charity.  Its  noblest  results  do  not  de- 
pend upon  the  wealth  of  the  one,  nor  upon  the  liberality  of  the  other, 
nor  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  third,  but  upon  the  combination  of  these 
and  similar  elemental  factors. 

It  is  so  in  all  material  pursuits,  in  all  spiritual  aspirations.  The 
individual,  with  liis  best  efforts  and  purest  aims,  with  all  his  means 
and  with  all  his  good  will,  can  accomplish  nothing.  With  these  efforts, 
means,  and  aims  of  the  individuals,  united,  and  properly  directed, 
there  is  nothing  which  could  not  be  accomplished,  which  would  be  im- 
possible. 

A  Sunday-school  Uuion  in  word  and  deed  is  the  great  desidera- 
tum ;  the  Judaism  of  the  future  needs  it,  and  the  re-establishment, 
the  re-organization  of  such  a  Union  is  the  burden  of  my  plea  to-day. 

Far  he  it  from  me,  however,  to  advocate  a  sup])ression  of  the  in- 
dividuality, or  to  favor  a  machine-made  man.  The  idea  of  a  Sunday- 
school  Union,  as  it  lives  in  my  mind,  does  not  mean  the  abolition  of 
the  independent  thought  of  the  thinker  or  the  individual  work 
of  the  worker;  it  means  a  pooling  of  issues,  a  contribution  of  ideas, 
that  should  be  well  digested  and  then  made  the  common  basis  for 
our  work.  It  means  that  we  agree  upon  what  we  want ;  it  means 
that  we  cease  to  grope  in  the  dark ;  it  means  that  all  who  are 
engaged  in  the  work  be  tiioroughly  aud  clearly  informed  as  to  its 
scope.  This  done,  we  may  safely  leave  the  details  of  the  work  to 
the  individual,  to  be  adjusted  in  accordance  with  local  requirements 
and  available  material.  Such  a  Sabbath-school  Union  with  a  well 
defined  aim  would  be  like  the  Public  Schools,  or  like  the  Christian 
Sunday-schools,  either  of  which,  having  the  masses  with  them,  arouse 
public  interest,  stimulate  the  efforts  and  propagate  the  cause  to  which 
they  are  devoted.  Such  a  Union,  which  would  embrace  all  our 
schools,  and  marshal  all  our  children  of  school  age,  would  inevitably 
enforce  the  recognition,  on  the  part  of  our  people,  of  its  importance, 
a  recognition  which  is  now  denied  our  schools,  and  this  advantage 
gained,  alone  would  do  away  with  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  drawbacks 
enumerated  above,  the  school  would,  more  generally,  be  assigned  to 
cheerful  and  inviting  quarters  aud  surroundings,  teachers  and  pupils 
Avould  gain  a  spirit  of  emulation,  text-books,  appealing  with  irresi^^tible 
force  to  instructor  and  instructed,  would  be  produced,  the  work  of  the 
Sunday-school  and  its  influence  would  not  remain  confined  to  the 
hour  of  instruction,   but    certain    agencies,   such    as    magazines  and 


318  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

weekly  papers,  would  be  called  into  existence  and  keep  alive  the  in- 
terest during  the  week,  erroneous  notions  about  religion  would  be 
rectified  by  making  it  a  factor  of  every  day  life  ;  the  school  would  thus 
become  a  delight  to  those  attending  it,  and  the  hours  of  instruction 
invested  with  an  interest  and  attractiveness,  which,  eventually,  would 
make  them  appear  as  the  pleasantest  and  most  profitable  i^eriod  of 
youth — in  one  word — such  a  uuiou  would  make  the  component  parts 
thereof,  to  answer  fully  and  satisfactorily  their  great  purpose  of  fitting 
the  young  to  be  successful  builders  of  the  future. 

Let  then  this  year,  so  fraught  with  valuable  lessons,  impress  upon 
Dur  minds  the  possible  results  of  organized,  concentrated  forces.  Let 
a  systematic  effort  be  made  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  all  our  indi- 
vidual schools.  Let  the  large  and  influential  congregations  with  their 
well  appointed  schools  extend  tlie  hand  of  helping  fellowship  to  those 
of  their  sisters  less  favored  by  circumstances,  and  let  these  not  be  mis- 
led by  false  pride,  but  come  forward,  grasp  that  extended  hand,  and 
help  the  common  cause.  Every  school,  even  the  smallest,  will  aid  in 
increasing  the  number  of  our  working  forces,  enlarge  the  scope  of  our 
labor  and  the  field  of  our  usefulness.  Long  enough  have  we,  has  our 
cause  suffered  under  the  baneful  efl^ects  of  .self-sufiiciency,  of  false 
pride  and  petty  jealousy.  It  is  time  that  we  learn  the  better  way. 
No  matter  how  large  the  individual  school,  no  matter  how  well 
equipped,  no  matter  how  competent  the  superintendent  and  the 
teachers,  it  will  never,  by  itself,  rise  to  that  dignity,  or  win  that  suc- 
cess which  our  schools  need. 

Together,  with  forces  united,  let  us  advance  together  with  one 
aim  in  view,  let  us  leniove  the  obstacles,  until  the  more  than  two 
hundred  schools,  with  the  more  than  thirty  thousand  children,  shall 
feel  one  common  interest,  shall  be  able  to  further  it,  and  by  their  in- 
fluence give  shape  and  beauty,  glory  and  honor  to  the  structure  of 
Judaism,  to  the  name  of  Jew.     Then,  and  not  till  tlien,  will  be  veri- 

fied  the  prophecy  mn*  nd"?  "]'JD  ^^)  J^  D^'C  21^;  then 
only  and  not  till  then,  will  peace  and  strength  be  our  jwrtion  through 
our  cluldrcn,  the  builders  of  the  future  ! 


POST-BIBLICAL   HISTORY    OF    THE   JEWS,  ETC.  319 


ON  INSTRUCTION   IN   THE   POST-BIBLICAL  IIISTORV  OF 
THE  JEWS  IN  OUR  SABBATH  SCHOOLS. 


By.  dr.  B.  FELSENTHAL. 


Is  it  necessary,  or  is  it  even  desirable,  that  oar  rising  Jewish  gen- 
eration shall  receive  instruction  in  the  post-biblical  history  of  our  peo- 
ple? I  aru  of  the  opinion  that  now-a-days  very  few  among  us  will 
raise  such  a  question.  I  believe  that  a  large  majority  of  the  superin- 
tendents of  Jewish  Sabbath  Schools  and  of  the  teachers  in  such  schools 
will  agree  with  me  when  I  say,  post-biblical  history  of  the  Jews  ought 
to  be  a  branch  of  instruction  in  each  and  every  Jewish  Sabbath  School, 
provided  it  is  kept  within  proper  limitations  and  is  imparted  in  the 
proper  spirit  and  in  a  proper  method. 

Such  an  instruction  has  thus  far  been  too  much  neglected.  And 
the  consequence  is,  that  we  so  often  meet  among  our  co-religionists 
with  a  great  ignorance  in  Jewish  matters,  with  an  ignorance  which 
certainly  should  not  prevail.  For  it  is  one  of  the  main  sources  of  the 
wide-spread  indifference  toward  Judaism.  Furthermore,  the  Jew  who 
lacks  all  knowledge  of  Jewish  History  is  unfitted  to  clearly  understand 
the  present  conditions  of  his  people  and  of  his  religion,  since  these 
present  conditions  are  rooting  in  the  past  and  are  the  outcome  of  his- 
torical causes. 

And  aside  from  this,  it  is  to  be  taken  into  consideration  that  even 
a  limited  knowledge  in  Jewish  History  is  apt  to  inculcate  a  new  love 
for  Judaism  and  a  stronger  attachment  for  the  same  into  the  hearts  of 
our  sons  and  daughters,  and  may  fill  with  more  self-respect,  aye,  with 
a  noble  pride,  the  minds  of  our  youth,  so  that  again  they  might  con- 
fess and  exclaim  in  joy,  in  enthusiasm,  and  before  all  the  world, 
''Ibhri  anokhi,  yes,  I  am  a  Heb]-ew ;  yes,  I  am  a  Jew ;  and  I  am  proud 
of  my  people  and  of  my  religion  !" 

The  question  now  arises,  in  how  far  and  to  what  extent  shall 
Jewish  History  be  taught  in  our  Sabbath  Schools? 

Considerations  of  various  kinds  will  force  the  conclusion  upon  us 
that  the  teacher  in  a  Sabbath  School  will  have  to  restrict  himself  to 
the  main  points,  and  that  he  must  be  satisfied  if  the  pupils  in  his 
classes  become  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  outlines  of  this  branch 


320  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 

of  study.  For  the  time  which  we  can  devote  to  our  Sabbath  School 
work  is  very  limited,  aud  this  time  is  therefore  to  be  husbanded  eco- 
nomically and  wisely.  Besides  this,  the  children  have  to  study  so 
many  other  branches,  many  of  which  may  well  claim  precedence  to 
Jewish  History  and  greater  importance,  since  they  weigh  heavier  in 
the  scale  of  the  general  culture  of  the  age  than  Jewish  History  does. 
And  a  Jew  of  whom  it  might  be  said  that  he  possesses  the  average 
culture  required  in  the  present  times  of  a  well  educated  person,  must, 
in  the  opinion  of  many,  be  more  at  home  in  Universal  History  than  in 
Jewish  History. 

Fui'thermore,  it  can  not  be  the  aim  and  ol)ject  of  the  Sabbath 
Schools  to  educate  profound  scholars  and  thorough  specialists  in  Jew- 
ish History.  H  good  foundations  are  laid  and  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  the  most  important  names  and  dates  and  events  are  stored 
in  the  memory  of  the  pupils  in  becoming  chronological  order,  and  if 
the  teacher  succeeds  in  awakening  sufficient  interest  in  the  minds  of 
the  pupils  to  widen  their  knowledge  by  their  own  private  readings  and 
in  other  ways  open  to  them,  then  we  may  be  well  contented. 

The  next  question  is.  What  are  the  main  points  that  deserve, 
foremost  of  all,  to  be  selected  and  to  be  taught  in  the  Sabbath  School? 

I  answer:  First,  those  points  which  will  help  the  young  students 
to  better  understand  the  I'eligious  life  and  the  religious  institutions  of 
the  Israelites  in  the  present  times;  secondly,  those  points  by  which 
the  learners  may  be  lifted  up  religiously  and  morally,  and  by  which  a 
deeper  love  for  our  religion  may  be  called  forth. 

Let  me  illustrate  this  by  going  a  little  into  details. 

The  child  visiting  the  Sabbath  School  is  also  a  visitor  of  the  Syna- 
gogue. And  it  is  to  be  expected  that  it  shall  remain  a  I'cgular  attend- 
ant of  the  divine  services  after  having  left  the  school  and  having 
reached  the  years  of  manhood  or  womanhood.  Our  symigogal  service 
is  of  an  historical  growth.  Many  parts  of  it  can  (inly  be  understood 
properly  and  ap])reeiated  ])roperly  if  we  know  how  they  originated 
and  how  they  grew.  It  is  therefore  desirable  that  in  our  Sabbath 
Schools  the  children  should  learn  what  is  meant  by  the  terms  Sha'liarith, 
Musaph,  Mbihuli,  Maaribh;  by  the  words  Slddur,  Ma'hzor,  Plyyutim, 
Selihofh,  KI)ioth  ;  by  Kcriath  ha-Torah  and  Haphtarah,  and  so  forth  ; 
aud  they  should  be  instructed  how  that  what  is  designated  by  these 
words  came  gradually  into  existence  in  the  course  of  times,  and  ac- 
cepted the  present  shapes  and  forms.  The  children  will  also  not  fail 
to  notice  that  besides  the  biblical  festivals,  we  Jews  celebrate  also  a 
semi-festival  of  post-biblical  origin,  uuv'Hamtkkah,  and  that  every  four 


POST-BIBLICAL   HISTORY    OF   THE   JKWS,   ETC.  321 

Aveeks  Rosh  'Hodesli  is  aunounced,  aud  that  the  same  in  some  way  is 
distinguished  frorii  other  days  by  certain  features  in  the  ritual.  Why 
'Hanukkah  is  celebrated,  and  when  the  rules  were  laid  down  by  which 
the  Roshe  'Hodashini  were  to  be  calculated  and  the  lunar  years  of  the 
Jews  were  to  be  arranged — this  the  pupils  ought  to  learn  in  the  his- 
torical lessons  given  in  our  Sabbath  Schools.  And  similarly  it  should 
be  in  regard  to  many  other  points  in  our  ritual  and  in  our  ceremonial 
usages  aud'customs. 

By  the  Sabbath  School  lessons  in  Jewish  History  also,  so  much 
should  certainly  be  taught  that  in  later  years  the  audiences  listening 
to  the  discourses  and  sermons  of  tl:e  Rabbis  could  follow  intelligently 
these  discourses  and  sermons.  The  Rabbi  quotes  occasionally  from 
the  Talmud  or  the  Midrash  or  other  parts  of  the  Jewish  literature  ;  he 
mentions  occasionally  the  Halakhah  or  the  Haggadah  ;  he  speaks  oc- 
casionally of  Pharisees  aud  Sadducees,  of  Samaritans  and  Karaites,  of 
Rashi  and  Mairaouides.  How  discouraging  must  it  now  be  to  the 
Jewish  preacher  to  know  that  his  discourses,  in  so  far  as  they  allude  to 
historical  persons  and  facts  and  presuppose  some  substantial  knowledge 
of  our  past,  are  not  appreciated  and  not  understood,  because  his 
listeners  are  so  grossly  ignorant!  Shall  now  the  Jewish  preacher  ever 
and  anon  restrict  himself  exclusively  to  appeals  to"  the  emotional  side 
of  our  soul  life?  to  exhortations  and  expostulations?  or  to  the  plati- 
tudes of  empty  harangues?  A  Jewish  sermon  must  be  instructive, 
and  must  have  matter  and  substance,  and  a  Jewish  preacher  must 
speak  to  the  intellect  and  not  merely  to  the  heart.  Therefore,  Jewish 
audiences  must  be  prepared  to  a  certain  degree,  they  must  at  least  be 
familiar  with  the  main  points  of  Jewish  history  aud  Jewish  literature. 
They  must  know  what  is  to  be  understood  by  such  words  as  Talmud, 
Targum,  etc.  Tliey  must  have  an  idea  who  these  eminent  men  were 
whose  names  they  hear  sometimes  mentioned  by  the  Rabbi,  and  of 
whom  they  read  occasionally  in  their  periodicals.  And  to  learn  that 
much,  opportunities  must  be  offered  by  our  Sabbath  Schools. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  essay  it  has  also  been  remarked  that  by 
the  instruction  imparted  in  the  Sabbath  Schools  a  deeper  love  and 
warmer  attachment  to  Judaism  might  be  created.  For  this  purjwse 
such  points  must  be  selected  which  show  that  our  ancestors  in  times 
past  were  indeed  heroes  in  their  sufferings,  heroes  who  remained  true 
and  faithful  to  their  God  and  their  religion,  even  then  when  thev  had 
to  sacrifice  all  their  earthly  possessions,  even  when  they  had  to  re- 
nounce their  liberty,  tlieir  country,  their  lives.  Also  such  j)()ints  must; 
be  laid  stress  upon  which  demonstrate  that  education,  learning,  poetry, 
21 


322  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

that,  iu  short,  many  other  ideal  objects  were  constantly  held  in  higli 
esteem  by  our  ancestors  iu  former  times,  notwithstanding  the  dark 
days  of  persecution  and  the  cloudy  days  of  the  INIiddle  Ages,  and  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  they  were  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  enmity 
and  fanaticism.  Thus  great  lessons  will  be  impressed  upon  tlie  minds 
of  the  Jewish  children,  the  lessors  that  there  are  higher  objects  to  be 
pursued  than  accumulating  earthly  possessions  and  enjoying  ffeety 
sensual  pleasures;  that  gold  and  silver  and  even  life  itself  must  not 
be  considered  as  the  sole  and  best  realities  to  be  aimed  after;  that  re- 
ligion, moral  conduct,  fulfillment  of  our  duties,  the  building  up  of  a 
world  resting  upon  truth,  justice,  and  peace  is  of  an  immensely  higher 
value  than  those  things  which  by  so  many  iu  our  materialistic  age 
are  put  into  the  foreground.  And  thus  the  Sabbath  School  will  have 
an  educational  influence  upon  the  children,  and  will  not  impart  merely 
a  dead  and  unproductive  knowing  of  a  number  of  facts,  to  be  stored 
away  iu  the  chambers  of  our  memory. 

As  10  the  text-books  to  be  used  in  our  Sabbath  Schools,  I  am  of 
the  opinion  that  we  need  three  such  books — one  for  children  from 
seven  to  ten  years,  one  for  pupils  from  ten  to  fourteen  years,  and  one 
for  post-graduates  from  our  scliools  who  desire  to  enlarge  their  knowl- 
edge of  Judaism  and  of  its  history.  These  books  must  not  treat 
exclusively  of  Jewish  history  ;  they  might  comprise  whatsoever  the 
young  student  ought  to  know  of  Jews  and  of  Judaism.  To  require  of 
the  children  that  in  each  grade  they  should  buy  and  respectively  study 
one  special  catechism  of  the  Jewish  religion,  one  special  manual  of 
Biblical  History,  and  another  special  manual  of  Post-biblical  History 
would  be  unwise  for  many  reasons. 

The  text-books  for  the  lower  classes  in  the  Sabbath  Schools  should 
contain  the  substance  of  all  Jewish  learning  which  the  young  children 
visiting  these  classes  should  receive  and  could  understand  and  digest. 
The  most  necessary  points  in  Jewish  dogmatics,  in  ethics,  in  biblical 
history,  and  in  post-biblical  liistory  can  well  be  compressed  in  one 
small  vidume,  containing  from  lUO  to  I.IO  j)ages.  What  such  young 
children  could  learn  and  digest  of  Jeivish  I)o(jmatic.<  might  be  said  upon 
two  or  three  pages  of  the  text-books.  There  is  a  God  above  us,  one 
God.  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  eartii.  He 
is  the  Ruler  of  all  the  world,  He  is  our  kind  and  int  iciful  Father. 
He  is  the  Judge  who  calls  us  to  account  for  our  moral  shortcomings. 
We  can  not  comprehend  the  essence  of  God,  nor  His  thoughts  and 
ways.  He  is  beyond  our  understanding.  ]Man  in  his  moral  conduct 
is  a  free  agent ;  he  possesses  an  immortal  soul,  endowed   with  reason 


POST-BIBLICAL   HISTORY    OF    THE    JEWS,    ETC.  323 

and  with  a  conscience,  and  he  is  responsible  for  whatever  he  is  doing. 
All  mankind  is  one  great  family,  of  whom  God  is  the  Father.     This,  I 
think,  is  more  than  sufficient  for  younger  children — -and,  perhaps,  for 
grown  people  too — to  learn  of  Jewish- Dogmatics.     To  enter  with  them 
into  more  dogmatical  details,  to  speculate,  as  the  gnostics  of  old  did 
and  the  gnostics  of  modern  times  do,  upon  inetaphysical  and  really 
unknowable  matter,  as  for  instance,  upon  the  positive  attributes  of  the 
Absolute  Being,  of  the  nature  of  the  Life  Hereafter,  etc.,  would  be 
more  than  unwise,  it  would  be  misleading  and  harmful.     A  few  short 
sentences,  clothed  in  plain  words,  must  suffice  for  the  children.     To 
Ethics  some  more  space  is  to  be  devoted  in  the  text-book  and  some 
more  time  in  the  school.     Duties  incumbent  upon  the  children  in  their 
relations  to  their  parents,  teachers,  friends,  and  to  other  people  in  gen- 
eral, charity  toward  the  poor  and  needy,  truth,  justice,  honesty,  etc., 
etc. — these  are  matters  of  ethical  instruction,  and  the  paragraphs  in 
the  text-book  regarding  them  should   be  well   memorized,  after  the 
teacher  has  thoroughly  explained   them   and   appropriately  illustrated 
them  by  facts  from  history,  from  fiction,  and  from  every-day-life.     In 
support  of  the  ethical  instructions,  about  fifty  or  sixty  well  selected 
passages  from  the  Bible,  and  also  some  ethical  sayings  from  the  Tal- 
mud and  from  our  post-talmudical  literature,  should  be  accepted  into 
this  text-book,  and    the  children   should   commit  them   to  memory. 
Such  ancient  authoritative  sentences  are  often  great   moral  aids  in 
hours  of  temptation,  and  in  times  when  we  may  be  iu  doubt  in  what 
direction  we  should  go,  they  might  prove  to  be  guides  showing  us  the 
paths  of  duty.     By  far  the  largest  part  of  the  text-book  should  be  de- 
voted  to  Biblical  and  Pod-hihlical  History,  or  let  us  rather  say,  to  a 
selection  of  such  stories  from  the  Bible  and  from  post-biblical  times 
which  can  be  understood  by  young  children,  and  by  which  they  can  be 
led  upward  in  their  religious  and  moral  life.     As  it  is  at  present  the  case 
iu  many  vSabbath  Schools,  much  is  taught  there  which  ought  to  be  omit- 
ted altogether,  or  which  at  least  should  be  left  for  a  maturer  age  ;  as  for 
instance,  the  biblical  cosmogony,  the   details  of  the   ancient   temple 
service,  the  political  history  of  Israel  in  the  times  of  the  Judges  and 
of  the  Kings,  etc.     Let  our  text-book  for  the  lower  classes  contain 
about  one  hundred  short  stories,  of  which  seventy  or  seventy-five  may 
be  biblical  stories  and  twenty-five  or  thirty  post-biblical  stories.     Each 
of  these  stories  might  in  the  average  fill  one  page.     The  language 
should  be  plain  and  easy,  without  being  childish.     The  story  number 
One    might   have  as  its  superscription,  "Abraham's    migration   into 
Canaan  and  his  separation  from  Lot,"  and  the  story  number  One  Hun- 


324  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 

dred  (llie  la.«t  in  the  book),  "Moses  Montefiore,  the  great  philantbro' 
pist  and  the  devoted  friend  of  Israel."' 

The  text-book  for  the  next  higher  grade,  for  tlie  pujjils  from  ten 
to  fourteen  years,  might  be  somewhat  larger;  it  might  be  a  book  con- 
taining fri)ni  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  pages.  And  these  pages- 
also  should  contain  the  entire  substance  of  what  the  more  advanced 
ones  ought  to  learn  in  our  Sabbath  schools.  To  the  dogmalical  part  from 
ten  to  twelve  pages  might  here  be  devoted — not  to  teach  essentially 
more  of  such  metaphysical  matters,  for  in  reality  none  of  us  knows  more 
of  these  things  than  we  teach  to  the  ■smaller  children;  but  it  nlay 
probably  be  well  to  make  here  a  commencement  in  teaching  the  chil- 
dren in  this  grade  how  to  look  at  Jewish  dogmatics  from  a  historical 
and  irom  a  comparative  standpoint.  A  few  elementary  paragraphs 
showing  in  general  outlines  how  Jewish  dogmas  grew  and  developed 
in  the  course  of  time,  and  in  how  far  they  differ  from  the  correspond- 
ing dogmas  of  other  religious  systems,  this  it  is  what  should  be  contaiued 
in  these  pages.  As  to  ethical  instructions,  we  should  now  certainly 
widen  the  limits  and  enlarge  the  field.  Although  children  of  twelve 
or  fourteen  years  are  not  ripe  enough  to  understand  systematic  ethics 
and  their  last  philosophical  foundations,  yet  they  can  be  impressed 
•with  the  sacredness  of  the  duties  which  we  have  to  fulfill  as  citizens 
of  the  state  in  which  we  live,  as  members  of  the  human  family  ta 
which  we  belong,  as  component  parts  of  society  in  which  we  move, 
and  to  the  amelioration  of  whose  couditions  we  should  contribute,  etc. 
Also  beginnings  might  be  made  now  in  defiuing  such  moral  con- 
ceptions as  virtue  and  vice,  good  and  evil,  truth  and  un- 
truth, selfishness  and  unselfishness,  etc.  Biblical  Histonj  should 
be  supplemented  now  by  chapters  which  in  the  lower  grade  had 
necessarily  to  be  omitted,  and  which  to  explain  the  time  nuiy  now  have 
come.  The  book  need  also  not  longer  to  consist  of  isolated  and  dis- 
connected stories,  but  Biblical  History  ought  to  be  treated  now  as  an 
organic  History,  and  it  ought  to  show  how  Israel  became  a  nation  and 
Jkjw  Israel's  religion  developed  in  the  course  of  centuries.  Immediately 
following  the  Biblical  History,  and  in  close  connection  with  it,  the 
most  impcu'tant  parts  of  Post-Biblical  Hidory  are  to  be  given.  We 
have  already  indicated  what,  in  our  view,  these  more  important  parts 
are,  and  we  can  therefore  be  brief  here.  I^et  the  substance  be  pre- 
sented in  chronological  order.     On) it  whatsoever  is  of  interest  only  to 

'  I  mav  be  ixTinitted  to  refer  the  reader  to  the  Jlchmv  Reviexc,  Vol.  I 
p.  89,  scfj.,  and  to  the  Menorah,  Vol.  VII,  p.  330,  serj.,  where  I  have  exjiressed 
mywlf  more  iu  detail  on  tin-  true  method  of  teaching  Biblical  History  ia 
our  Sabbatli  tScliools. 


POST-BIBLICAL   HISTORY    OF   THE   JEWS,    ETC.  ?{25 

the  specialist  anrl  do  not  burden  the  memory  of  yoiir  pupils  with  heiivy 
and  unimportant  details.  If  these  views  are  correct,  tlien,  to  give  an 
example,  the  text-book  for  the  sec  )nd  grade  of  our  Sabi)atli  Schools 
might  comprise  upon  ten  to  fifteen  pages  whatever  the  pupils  in  this 
grade  need  to  learn  of  Jewish  history  in  the  times  between  tho  re- 
turn from  tiie  Babylonian  captivity  and  the  destruction  of  the  second 
temple.  Without  any  particular  disadvantage  to  the  pupils  in  this  grade 
the  names  of  the  High  Priests  during  this  period  and  their  historical 
sequence,  and  the  intricate  history  of  the  Asmonean  dynasty  and  of 
the  Herodian  princes  can  be  omitted  entirely.  Sufficient  it  is  if  brief 
mention  is  made  of  the  fact  that  at  first  the  Jews  were  subjects  to 
the  Persian  kings,  then  to  Alexander  the  Macedonian,  and  then  to  the 
Syrians,  that  subsequently  they  became  more  or  less  independent  for 
some  time  under  the  rule  of  tlie  Asraoneans  and  of  the  Herodiaus,  until 
finally  Palestine  became  a  conquered  province  of  the  Roman  empire  and 
remained  it  till  the  second  Jewish  commonwealth  ceased  to  exist  in  the 
year  70  a.  c.  More  important  than  these  outer  facts  of  the  political 
history  of  the  Jews  in  this  period  are  for  our  children  the  story  how 
""Hanukkah  originated  during  this  time;  the  fact  that  the  first  trans- 
lation of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  the  Septuagint,  was  nn\de  in  this  pe- 
riod ;  that  two  great  parties  took  now  their  rise  among  the  Jews,  viz., 
the  party  of  the  Pharisees  and  the  party  of  the  Sadducees;  that  the 
books  comprised  in  the  Bible  were  then  collected  and  put  into  the 
camcorder  in  which  we  still  jjossess  them  ;  that  the  authors  of  the  so- 
called  Apocrypha,  that  furthermore  Philo,  Josei)hus,  and  some  others, 
enriched  the  Jewish  literature  by  writings  in  the  Greek  language  ; 
that  in  this  period  the  Jerusalem  temple  ceased  to  i-emain  the  sole 
house  of  Jewish  worship,  and  that  gradually  synagogues  arose  in  the 
various  cities  and  villages  where  Jews  were  living;  that  our  oldest 
prayers,  which  are  still  retained  in  our  rituals,  the  institution  of  pub- 
licly reading  from  the  Torah  in  the  synagogues,  the  translation  of  the 
lessons  read  into  the  Aramaic  (the  Targumim)  originated  in  these  days, 
etc.  It  is  also  important  to  tell  the  children  in  a  discreet  and  well 
considered  manner  how  it  came  that  Christianity  germinated,  and  that 
finally  the  Christian  Church  separated  from  the  Jewish  Synagogue. 
In  proceeding  to  the  next  period  of  our  Post-Biblical  History,  to  the 
history  of  the  talmudic  age,  the  pupils  must  learn  how  gradually  the 
Jews  became  dispersed  over  many  parts  of  the  known  world  ;  but  of 
still  more  importance  is  it  for  them  to  learn  who  Johanan  ben  Zakkai, 
Rabbi  Akibha,  R.  Jehudah  ha-Nasi  were,  and  for  what  reasons  we 
look  upon  them  as  great  men  in  our  history.  The  pupils  in  this  grade 
should  also  receive  an  idea  what  is  meant  by   Mishnah,   Jerusalem 


326  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

Talmud,  Babylonian  Talmud,  Halakhah,  Haggadah,  Midrash,  Mas- 
sorali,  etc.  In  coming  down  to  still  later  periods,  the  children  should 
receive  some  instructions  regarding  Geonim,  Karaites,  Kabbali?ts,  re- 
garding the  most  eminent  scholars  in  biblical,  in  talmudical,  in  general 
lore,  tlie  great  philosophers  and  poets  who  arose  among  despised  Israel, 
and  so  on.  All  these  pages  might,  however,  well  be  compressed  into  a 
space  of  forty  or  fifty  pages  at  the  utmost.  For  permit  me  to  repeat  once 
more:    Do  not  attempt  to  teach  too   much.     jlD^n  D^ltD  ilDSn 

4 

riD^'jl  H^  iiyn*2  DD^D-  if  you  attempt  to  reach  too  much,  you 
will  not  succeed  in  your  attempts;  if  you  attempt  less,  you  may  suc- 
ceed. From  the  entire  realm  of  post-talmudicalJewish  history  certainly 
not  more  tlian  at  highest  fifty  names  and  dates  should  be  garnered  into 
the  memory  and  treasured  in  the  minds  of  the  chiklren. 

One  other  manual  is  a  desideratum — a  book  for  classes  of  post- 
graduates. It  might  consist  of  a  number  of  essays  on  topics  from 
Jewish  liistory  and  religion,  each  one  complete  in  itself,  and  yet  con- 
nected in  some  systematic  and  logical  way  of  arranging  them.  By 
these  essays  the  young  student  may  be  led  somewhat  deeper  into  the 
spirit  which  fills  our  history  and  our  religion.  Here  selections  from 
our  prayers,  some  of  the  Piyyutim  and  some  other  poetical  productions, 
in  classical  translations,  of  course,  might  also  be  embodied  ;  likewise 
translations  of  single  chapters  from  our  ethical  literature,  aye,  even 
from  our  halakhic  literature,  also  some  pages  from  our  philosophers, 
etc.  These  specimens  from  our  Jewish  literature  should  be  read  atten- 
tively, and  should  be  commented  upon  in  introductory  chapters  by  the 
author  and  in  verbal  explanations  by  the  teachers,  and  thereby  the 
young  students  should  learn  how  to  properly  esteem  and  appreciate  our 
literature  and  to  judge  it  from  a  literary  and  from  an  historical 
standpoint.  For  without  leading  our  rising  youth,  or  at  least  the  ma- 
turer  ones  among  them,  to  the  i-ources,  they  might  be  filled  with 
pretensions  and  deceptive  idea  and  might  be  induced  to  indulge  in  the 
baseless  self-glorification  that  they  really  master  the  history  of  the  Jews 
and  of  their  religion  and  literature,  while  in  reality  they  would  not  know 
more  than  names,  nothing  but  ]iames.  And  can  this  be  called  mas- 
tery of  the  science  of  history  ? 

And  here  let  me  close.  Let  me  close  in  the  hope  that  some  of  my 
thoughts  may  be  found  worthy  of  further  consideration,  and  eventually 
of  practical  api)lication. 


THE   JEWISEI   PUBLICATION   SOCIETY    OF   AMEIUCA.  32'i 


THE  JEWISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA. 

By  miss  HENRIETTA  SZOLD. 


Five  years  ago,  through  the  efforts  of  the  union  of  several  local 
committees  in  Philadelphia,  eighty-eight  persons  became  interested  in 
the  plan  to  effect,  for  the  third  time  in  the  history  of  American 
Jews,  an  organization  for  the  purpose  of  publishing  and  circulating 
works  bearing  upon  Jewish  life  and  literature.  At  the  instance  of 
this  small  band  there  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  in  June,  1888,  an 
unusually  large  as  well  as  representative  convention  of  men  and 
women,  who  realized  the  importance  of  the  work  to  be  undertaken. 
Besides,  the  gathering  "was  thoroughly  national  in  character.  The 
delegates,  for  the  most  part  self-constituted — delegates  by  virtue  of 
their  unflagging  interest  in  Jewish  communal  affairs — came  from  all 
sections  of  the  couutiy.  The  laity  and  the  clergy  were  represented, 
the  professoi's  and  the  world  of  business,  the  city  congregations  and 
the  country  districts.  It  was  thus  not  unfounded  assumption  of  repre- 
sentative character  that  prompted  the  quickly  formed  organization  to 
call  itself  ''The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America." 

The  preamble  to  its  constitution  declares  the  object  of  the  society 
to  be  the  publishing  of  "  works  designed  to  foster  a  knowledge  of  Ju- 
daism, its  religion,  its  literature  and  its  history  among  the  Jews  of  tiie 
United  States."  More  explicitly  the  constitution  defines  its  proposed 
task  as  two-fold:  (1)  "  To  publish  works  on  the  religion,  literature 
and  history  of  the  Jews,  and  (2)  to  foster  original  work  by  American 
scholars  on  these  subjects." 

The  government  of  the  society  was  intrusted  to  a  president  and 
an  executive  committee  of  twenty-one  members.  The  literary  policy 
is  determined  by  a  publication  committee,  selected  by  the  executive 
from  among  the  members  of  the  society.  The  officers  elected  at  the 
first  convention  have  since,  with  but  few  minor  changes,  continued 
to  preside  over  the  society.  In  the  composition  of  the  executive  some 
new  names  may  be  noted,  and  the  publication  committee  has  had  one 
new  member  added  to  its  original  number.  But  the  character  of  the 
changes  has  not  been  such  as  to  affect  materially  the  policy  under 


328  '  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

wliicli  the  society  began  to  act.  The  work  of  the  society  is,  therefore, 
a  unit,  and  may  be  reviewed  as  such. 

A  society  whose  purpose  it  is  to  foster  a  knowledge  of  Judaism 
by  publishing  works  on  the  religion,  literature  and  history  of  the 
Jews,  acts  as  an  educator  and  propagandist.  Stress  is  laid  upon  the 
latter  function  in  tlie  constitution,  by  which  "  the  Executive  Commit- 
tee is  authorized  to  distribute  co))ies  of  the  society's  publications 
among  such  institutions  as  may  be  deemed  proper,  and  wherever  such 
distribution  may  be  deemed  productive  of  good  for  the  cause  of  Is- 
rael." All  those  interested  in  Jewish  educational  work  in  this  coun- 
try can  bear  witness  to  tlie  fact  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the  student 
and  the  ability  of  the  teacher  are  as  naught  before  the  obstacle  inter- 
])osed  by  the  lack  of  works  on  Judaism  in  the  English  language. 
Jewish  doctrines  have,  in  our  country,  hitherto  depended  for  their  pro- 
mulgation and  exposition  almost  entirely  upon  the  spoken  word,  reach- 
ing only  a  limited  number,  and  quickly  fading  from  memory,  or  upon 
the  timely  but  chiefly  ephemeral  and  often  polemic  productions,  to 
whicli  a  place  can  be  given  in  the  Jewish  press.  The' library  now 
bearing  the  seal  of  the  Jewish  Publication  Society  holds  out  the  j)rom- 
ise  of  better  facilities  in  the. future.  Indeed,  the  first  work  published. 
Lady  Magnus'  "Outlines  of  Jewish  History,"  by  its  wide  sale,  testi- 
fied to  the  fact  that  the  organizers  of  the  society  had  rightly  conceived 
of  its  province.  It  has  been  adopted  by  our  educators  as  a  charmingly 
written  text-book  on  post-Biblical  Jewish  history,  for  our  religious 
schools  and  the  satisfaction  it  gives  shows  that,  in  the  language  of  the 
trade,  it  supplies  "  a  long-felt  want."  Furthermore,  the  welcome  ac- 
corded the  "Outlines"  may  not  unfairly  be  interpreted  as  stamping 
with  legitimacy  the  propaganda  aims  of  the  society,  in  so  far  as  they 
tend  to  efl'ect  the  better  understanding  of  Judaism  among  its  own  ad- 
herents. Although  the  society  added  much  new  matter  to  Lady 
Magnus'  book,  which  enhances  its  value  as  a  literary  work,  it  is  a  fact 
that  her  book,  so  far  as  its  qualifications  as  a  text-book  go,  might  have 
been  use<l  some  years  before  the  society  republished  it  from  tlie  Eng- 
lish edition.  But  it  is  another  fact  that  it  was  not  so  used.  The  work 
of  the  society,  in  this  instance,  then,  was  to  render  a  good  book  ac- 
cessible to  wide  circles,  and  that  it  has  notably  done. 

The  "Outlines"  were  followed  by  "  Think  and  Thank,"  "  Kal)bi 
and  Priest,"  "  The  Persecution  of  the  .Tews  in  Russia,"  "  Voegele's 
Marria'ge  and  Other  Tales,"  "  Children  of  the  Ghetto,"  "  Some  Jewish 
Women,"  and  two  volumes  of  "  Graetz's  History  of  the  Jews." 

Tiie  most  important  work  ))ublished  hitherto  is  doubtless  Graetz's 
"  History  of  the  Jews."     When  completed   the  work   will   consist  of 


THE   JEWISH    PUHLICATION    SOCIETY    OF    AMERICA.  329 

five  VDliinies,  averaging  five  liundred  pages.  Up  to  the  present  Vol- 
umes I.  and  II.  liave  beeu  issued,  and  the  third  will  soon  api)ear.  The 
English  book  is  an  adaptation  of  Graetz's  eleven-volume  liisiory,  to- 
gether with  some  new  matter,  partly  taken  from  the  author's  I  o/A>'- 
thuemliche  Gescliichte,  in  three  volumes,  the  work  of  adaptation  liaving 
beeu  done  under  the  superintendence  of  the  lamented  author.  It  dif- 
fers from  the  famous  eleven-volume  work  in  the  omission  of  the  schol- 
arly notes  appended  to  the  latter.  It  thus  loses  in  cumbersomeness 
without  losing  in  value  as  a  product  of  Jewish  literature. 

The  ])ublishing  of  Graetz's  History  was  earnestly  objected  to  by 
serious-minded  men  of  good  judgment.  The  fact  tliat  objections  were 
raised  is  here  adverted  to  only  because  an  examination  of  some  of  the 
arguments  may  serve  to  define  the  literary  policy  followed  by  the  soci- 
ety. It  was  said  "that  the  work  is  not  of  a  nature  to  appeal  to  the 
popular  taste,"  aiid  it  was  suggested  "  that  what  is  needed  are  especially 
prepared  works  for  the  society,  each  complete  in  itself,  and  treating  of 
the  great  epochs  in  Jewish  history  and  literature."  The  suggestion  as  to 
the  course  to  be  pursued  by  the  society  in  selecting  works  for  publica- 
tion naturally  grew  out  of  the  objection.  It  is  implied  tliat  our  Amer- 
ican Jewish  public  can  not  jcspond  to  the  enthusiasm  and  vigor  of  a 
great  work  on  Jewish  history — the  greatest  ever  produced  ;  that  before 
it  can  be  made  responsive  to  what  is  strong  and  good,  it  needs  to  be 
toned  up  by  works  especially  compounded  to  suit  its  case  ;  and  that 
thus  dosed,  it  may  gradually  be  led  on  to  the  appreciation  of  what 
truly  deserves  the  name  literature.  A  course  of  this  kind  is  destruc- 
tive of  its  own  aims.  The  n)ind  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon.  As 
men  are  prepared  for  liberty  by  the  enjoyment  of  liberty,  so  for  good 
literature  by  the  reading  of  good  literature.  Perhaps  we  may  need 
easy  reading,  but  surely  not  adulterated  reading.  Books  produced  lor  a 
set  purpose  make  good  campaign  literature  for  effecting  some  practical 
object.  But  gross  means  will  certainly  not  compass  the  intangible  re- 
sults which  a  Jewish  Publication  Society  should  hope  to  realize.  The 
books  that  we  need  are  those  that  will  hold  in  Engluh  solution  the  fine 
fervor,  the  subtle  spirit  that  has  ever  pervaded  Jewish  literature,  no 
matter  what  the  language  in  which  it  was  couched.  We  do,  indeed, 
need  books  of  instruction  on  our  history,  our  religion,  our  literature, 
but  they,  in  turn,  must  be  works  which  posterity  may  be  willing  to 
rank  as  literature,  each  in  its  own  department.  We  that  have  at.  last 
ceased  to  be  wanderers,  and  may  honestly  call  ourselves  citizens  of  a 
country,  in  whose  classic  literature  we  take  the  joy  and  the  pride  that 
come  only  through  identifying  one's  self  with  that  spirit  that  produced 
it — we  surely,  if  only  a  tithe  of  the  enthusiasm  for  country  be  left  for 


330  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 

race  and  religion,  are  not  willing  to  i)iit  np  with  Jewish  literature,  so 
far  below  the  classic,  artistic  standard  that  it  openly  avows  its  ienclenz 
origin.  The  work  of  the  Society,  in  other  words,  is,  indeed,  educa- 
tional, hilt  it  is  not  school  work,  as  its  propagandisin  is  not  prose- 
lytizing. 

Another  book  published  by  the  Society  that  aroused  general  dis- 
cussion t\nd  criticism,  in  this  case  a/to"  its  publication,  is  Mr.  Zangwill's 
"Children  of  the  Ghetto."  This  book,  which  many  believe  is  destined 
in  the  future  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  classic  of  English  literature,  owes 
its  origin  directly  to  the  Jewish  Publication  Society.  It  would  cer- 
tainly not  have  been  written  at.  this  precise  juncture  if  tlie  Society 
had  not  urged  its  author  on  to  the  task.  Mr.  Zangwill  did,  indeed, 
write  tliat  a  novel  on  the  English  ghetto  was  in  him,  and  \v(juld  come 
out  at  some  time  or  other,  but  it  remains  true  that  this  substantial  con- 
tribution to  literature  was  made  through  the  encouragement  which  the 
Jewi-h  Publication  Society  was  able  to  offer  its  author.  Its  special 
value  to  the  Jewish  reading  public  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  virile 
and  artistic  reproduction  of  a  phase  of  life  among  the  Jews  rapidly 
sinking  out  of  view  of  the  present  generation  into  the  shadows  of  the 
past.  Mr.  Zangwill  has  for  Englisli  readers  rescued  from  oblivion 
dear  and  quaint  customs.  It  is  the  first  time  that  the  pecidiar  charm 
which  makes  Kompert's  ghetto  novels  works  of  art  lias  found  congenial 
expression  in  the  English  language.  Before  "  Children  of  the  Ghetto" 
was  written,  most  of  us  that  had  lauglied  and  cried  over  pictures  of 
old  Jewisii  life,  such  as  Kompert,  Herzberg-Fraenkel,  Kohn,  Kulke, 
and  Bernstein  have  drawn  foi-  us,  would  have  declared  it  impossible 
for  Jewish  portraits  to  preserve  their  flesli  tints  after  being  transferred 
to  an  Ano-lo  Saxon  canvas  and  frame.  And  who  will  denv  that  a 
book  like  Mr.  Zangwill's  has  an  educational — nay,  to  the  historian  of 
culture,  a  .scientific — value? 

It  is  noteworthy  that  each  one  of  the  three  works  discussed  in  de- 
tail—the "  Outlines,"  Graelz's  History,  and  "Children  of  the  Ghetto"— 
invited  criticisn),  for  one  reason  or  another,  of  the  methods  of  the  Pub- 
lication Committee,  yet  they  are  the  publications  that  have  met  with 
greatest  success.  Mere  success  woidd  indicate  nothing  more  than  that 
the  committee  had  properly  gauged  the  desires  and  needs  of  the  pub- 
lic. l?ut  that  works  of  admittedly  high  literary  character  have  been 
well  received  proves  that  the  purpo.se  of  the  society — to  foster  a  knowl- 
edge of  Judaism  by  pul)li.shing  works  on  its  religion,  literature,  and 
history— can  be  effected  best  by  bona  fide  literature — not  by  books 
written  with  the  purpose  in  view  of  enlightening  a  certain  class  of 
people,  but  by  books  of  intrinsic  merit. 


THE   JEWISH    PUBLICATION    SOCIETY    OF    AMEUICA.  331 

The  fact  that  the  society  is  educational  in  its  character  and  aims 
naturally  forces  upon  its  Publicatiou  Committee  the  exercise  of  carefid 
choice  in  the  selection  of  books  to  be  published.  That  is  to  say,  not 
every  work  of  merit  on  a  subject  of  Jewish  interest  which  may  be  sub- 
mitted can  be  given  to'its  subscribers.  Every  book  published  should 
be  a  book  of  merit,  but  not  every  book  of  merit  can  be  published  by 
it.  Tliere  was  a  time — some  of  us  remember  it,  some  of  us  have 
heard  our  fathers  tell  of  it — in  which  almost  every  Jew  had  a  library 
of  Jewish  works.  Often  the  possessor  could  not  read  them  because 
they  were  in  Hebrew,  or,  if  he  knew  the  words  of  their  language,  he 
could  not  understand  them  because  they  were  abstruse  in  subject  and 
conception.  The  possession  of  such  a  library  certainly  did  not  indi- 
cate, on  the  part  of  its  owner,  the  desire  to  make  an  idle  boast  of  intel- 
lectual attainments.  He  acquired  it  because  he  conceived  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  help  on  book  production,  since  he  himself  could  not  increase 
the  spiritual  treasures  of  the  world  by  producing  books.  Now,  al- 
though the  members  of  the  Publication  Society  are  banded  together 
primarily  for  educational  purposes,  we  can  not  belie  our  intellectual 
instincts.  The  society  recognizes  the  legitimacy  of  the  old  Jewish 
feeling,  that  every  worthy  spiritual  enterprise,  whether  or  not  we  are 
to  be  directly  and  materially  benefited  by  its  success,  should  be  sup- 
ported and  encouraged.  Therefore,  its  second  object  is  ''to  foster 
original  work  by  American  scholars  on  these  subjects,"  namely,  history, 
religion,  and  literature 'of  the  Jews.  At  the  last  biennial  convention, 
in  June,  1892,  the  committee  on  the  part  of  the  report  relating  to 
publication  said :  "  In  the  nature  of  things,  there  are  two  classes  of 
works  which  the  society  is  excluded  from  publishing  : 

"  (1)   Works  of  a  costly  character,  for  obvious  reasons. 

"  (2)  Works  of  a  distinctly  scientific  character  or  such  other  works 
as  are  beyond  the  present  scope  of  the  society. 

"But  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  Society  can  very  properly  aid 
in  the  publication  of  works  falling  under  these  two  classes.  Such  aid 
in  the  case  of  scholarly  works  is  particularly  needed  and  desirable ; 
and  if  it  be  urged  that  the  members  as  such  would  receive  no  advan- 
tage from  such  aid  given  to  the  publications  of  this  character,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  society  would  thus  increase  its  usefulness,  and  would 
also  offer  a  return  to  the  minority  of  its  members  for  whom  such 
works  are  of  importance  whose  publication  would  thus  be  rendered 
possible.  We  accordingly  recommend  to  the  Publication  Committee 
that  it  set  aside  a  sum  for  subventioning  such  scholarly  publications  as 
they  see  fit,  preference  to  be  given  to  the  production  of  American 
scholars.     In  making  this  recommendation  we  are  but  urging  the  con- 


332  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

sifleration  of  the  second  clause  of  article  2  of  the  constitution,  which 
places  among  the  objects  of  the  society  the  fostering  of  original  work 
by  American  scholars  on  the  religion,  history,  and  literature  of  the 
Jews."  This  consideration  is  essentially  Jewish — essentially  in  con- 
sonance witli  the  history  and  principles  of  a'  minority.  And  this 
consideration  it  is  that  will  encourage  our  brave  scholars,  who  have 
hitherto  sacrificed  not  only  time,  labor  and  energy,  but  also  their  own 
not  too  abundant  means,  to  produce  works  of  mature  learning  and 
original  research,  works  by  virtue  of  which  American  Jews  will  ftill 
into  line  with  Jews  of  every  land  and  age,  and  in  the  words  of  an  ap- 
peal addressed  in  behalf  of  the  society  to  the  Jews  of  the  United 
States,  "  works  whose  publication  will  pay  a  debt  to  our  country,  and 
increase  the  consideration  in  which  our  neighbors  hold  us." 

That,  however,  is  work  for  the  years  to  come,  and  leads  us  to 
speak  of  the  plans  of  the  society.  In  tlie  near  future  it  will  give  to 
its  members  a  book  of  sermons  selected  from  those  left,  to  American 
Judaism  as  a  legacy  by  one  of  its  greatest  spirits— Liebman  Adler. 
The  third  volume  of  Graetz  will  follow,  and  a  translation  of  essays  by 
the  eminent  litterateur,  Gustave  Karpeles,  now  editor  of  the  Allge- 
meime  Zeitung  des  Judentlmms,  has  already  been  prepared. 

But  the  most  important  w^ork  proposed  is  first  mentioned  in  the 
report  above  quoted  in  these  words:  "We  look  forward  to  the 
time  wlien  tiie  society  will  furnish  a  new  and  popular  English  rendition 
<jf  the  book  which  the  Jews  have  given  to  the  world,  the  Bil)le,  that 
shall  be  the  work  of  American-Jewish  scholars."  It  is  this  work  which 
is  now  being  approached  by  the  Publication  Committee  with  due  care 
and  tact.  From  among  its  members,  a  sub-committee  was  chosen  and 
intrusted  with  the  task  of  inviting  consulting  scholars,  with  their  aid 
to  formulate  the  modi(s  operandi  to  be  adopted  in  grappling  with  this 
truly  monumental  work.  This  sub-committee  has,  as  you  will  remem- 
ber seeing  in  the  columns  of  the  Jewish  i)ress,  completed  the  task  laid 
upon  it,  and  now  awaits  the  action  of  the  Publication  Committee. 
The  work  thus  l)egun  is  stupendous,  important,  ImIv.  Years  may 
pass  before  it  is  wholly  accomplished.  But  it  is  legitimate  work  for 
the  Society,  and  once  completed  will  form  its  charter  of  incorporation 
in  perpetuity. 

One  other  plan  of  interest  and  magnitude  is  under  discussion. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  ideas  afloat  among  the  members  of  the  Publication 
Committee  may  soon  crystallize,  and  that  to  American  Judaism  may 
be  given  a  scientific  Quarterly  devoted  to  Jewish  science,  research  and 
scholarship,  as  well  as  to  all  other  spiritual  aims  of  Judaism. 

A  word  remains  to  be  said  of  the  work  of  the  two  chief  commit- 


THE   JEWISH   PUBLICATION    SOCIETY    OF   AMERICA.  333 

tees  of  the  Society.  The  results  of  the  hibois  of  the  Publication 
Committee  are  before  the  public,  awaiting  its  verdict.  Of  the  work 
devolving  upon  the  committee,  it  may  be  said  that  those  not  directly 
concerned  can  have  no  idea  of  the  amount  of  time  given  to  the  affairs 
of  the  Society  by  individual  active  members  of  this  committee.  Their 
work  by  no  means  ceases  with  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  a  book, 
or  the  discussions  in  the  course  of  the  frequent  committee  meetings. 
It  extends  to  all  the  minutiae  of  the  book-maker's  art,  and  it  has  been 
undertaken  and  executed,  with  rare  fidelity,  by  men  of  wide  experi- 
ence, of  tested  devotion  to  Judaism,  and  of  acknowledged  attainments 
in  the  field  of  Jewish  literature  and  geiieial  culture. 

To  the  Executive  Committee,  finally,  all  credit  is  due  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Society.  By  means  of  its  faithful  administration  of  the 
finances  results  great  in  comparison  with  the  income  have  been  pro- 
duced. As  in  the  case  of  the  other  committee,  the  work  of  its  mem- 
bers has  not  been  confined  to  that  presented  at  its  quarterly  meetings. 
Individual  members  have  formed,  at  their  own  homes,  as  at  Baltimore,^ 
San  Francisco  and  New  York,  auxiliary  branches  which  have  been 
actively  at  work  spreading  abroad  information  about  the  achievements 
of  the  Society,  and  have  thus  won  numerous  members.  Tliey  proved 
by  their  success  in  this  direction  that  theirs  is  the  only  way  to  push 
the  work  of  the  Society.  The  membership  is  now  nearly  three  thou- 
sand, a  number  not  before  equaled  in  the  annals  of  literary  societies 
among  the  Jews  of  America,  and  yet  ridiculously  small  when,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  prosperity,  the  intelligence  and  the  size  of  the  American 
Jewish  community  are  taken  into  consideration,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  broad,  all-embracing  aims  of  the  Society. 

In  the  words  of  its  President's  first  appeal,  the  Jewish  Publication 
Society  of  America  again  appeals  to  the  public  :    "  The  cause  is  good, 
the  harvest  is  ripe,  the  workers  are  many,  and  success  means  a  great, 
step  forward  for  Judaism  and  for  humanity." 


334  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 


TP.AINING  SCHOOLS. 

Bv  PIIOFESSOR  G.  BAMBERGER. 


It  is  necessary  to  resort  to  radical  measures,  if  we  wish  to  help 
the  poor.  Confronted  by  the  great  misery  of  the  so-called  perishing 
classes,  there  is  hardly  a  person  of  generous  nature  who  does  not  at- 
tem})t,  at  one  time  or  another,  to  bring  succor  to  the  needy  through 
tlie  ordinary  instrumentalities  of  charity.  Such  efforts  have  their 
value  and  ought  on  no  account  to  be  discouraged  ;  but  those  wlio  are 
most  earnestly  engaged  in  the  cause  of  ciiarity  feel  most  keenly  a  lack 
of  real  satisfaction  in  their  work.  It  seems  so  hopeless  a  task,  so  much 
like  pouring  water  on  a  hot  stone.  The  evil  weed  of  poverty,  when 
lopped  off  at  the  surface,  continues  to  grow  with  unconquerable  malig- 
nity from  the  roots.  It  were  well  if  one  could  penetrate  to  the  root 
itself  and  extirpate  that — if  one  could  help  the  poor  to  help  them- 
selves. Education  is  the  only  means  of  doing  this,  and,  therefore,  all 
those  who  have  given  the  subject  of  human  misery  careful  thought 
unite  in  the  opinion  that  education — tlie  best  and  most  thorough  edu- 
cation for  the  people — is  what  we  pre-eminently  need.  And  so  one 
hears  on  all  sides  the  cry,  "Education  !"  Education  is  the  one  radi- 
cal remedy  which  will  solve  these  terrible  problems.  But  while  every 
one  is  ready  to  cry,  "Education!"  what  is  being  actually  done?  we 
must  ask.  What  steps  are  being  taken  to  give  the  poor  the  right 
education  ?  People  are  generally  satisfied  with  having  acknowledged 
the  necessity  of  education,  and  nothing  further  is  done.  Nothing,  did 
I  say?  Yes,  something  was  done.  There  are  here,  in  this  city  of 
Chicago,  a  number  of  such  generous  men  and  women  who  were  not 
.satisfied  with  the  proclamation  only,  but  who  endeavored  to,  and  suc- 
ceeded in,  establishing  a  school,  the  Jewish  Training  School  of  Chicago, 
a  school  in  which  such  an  education  is  to  be  given  to  the  children  of 
the  poor,  fitted  and  necessary  to  successfully  check  the  growth  of  pov- 
erty in  these  quarters.  It  may  seem  presumptuous  on  my  part  to  de- 
clare that  in  this  institution  mentioned,  the  lookcd-for  remedy  has  been 
found.  For  the  purpose  of  verifying,  or  rather  illustrating,  this  state- 
ment, I  have  the  pleasure  of  addressing  you. 

It  must  be  evident  to  every  thinking  mind  that  the  sort  of  educa- 


TRAINING    SCHOOLS.  335 

tion  wliich  the  children  of  the  people  receive  is  not  satisfactoiy.  I  do 
not  wish  to  enter  into  any  controversy  to  prove  this,  as  the  time  allotted 
is  limited.  I  shall  content  myself  with  referring  to  the  ojjinions  of  dis- 
tingnished  educators  and  American  writers  whose  views  carry  weight. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr.,  AV.  T.  Harris,  Francis  W.  Faiker,  Felix 
Adler,  Stanley  Hall  and  many  others  have  repeatedly  expressed  their 
dissatisfaction  with  the  methods  and  results  of  our  Common  School 
Education. 

A  Training  School  Education  differs  widely  from  the  Common 
School  Education,  and  must,  if  properly  carried  out,  be  satisfactory  in 
its  results.  This  was  the  reason  why  the  founders  and  supporters  of 
this  Training  School  were  not  in  favor  of  sending  the  little  children  of 
the  poor  Refugees  to  Public  School.  I  must  also  refrain  from  showing 
and  proving  in  what  respect  the  Training  School  Education  is  superior 
to  the  Public  School  Education.  I  shall  only  show  you  some  of  the 
great  advantages  such  an  institution  gives  to  the  children,  and  es- 
pecially to  the  children  of  the  Refugees. 

In  the  first  place,  our  Training  School  is  an  educational  institution. 
We  not  only  instruct,  we  educate  our  pupils.  We  are  not  satisfied 
with  merely  being  with  them  during  school  hours;  we  follow  them  into 
their  homes,  we  study  their  home  surroundings,  become  acquainted 
with  our  co-educators,  the  parents;  teach  and  interest  them,  and  not 
only  check  by  that  method  the  evil  influences  that  may  be  exercised, 
but  change  them  into  useful  helpers  for  our  task.  We  assemble  the 
parents  regularly  every  month,  at  which  meetings  teachers  and  pai'ents 
are  present,  and  in  which  the  common  sacred  cause,  the  education  of 
their  children,  is  discussed. 

Second.  Because  we  take  such  a  deep  and  sincere  interest  in  them, 
they  will  send  their  children  to  school,  and  it  is  my  conviction  that 
fifty  per  cent  of  our  pupils  would  not  go  to  school  at  all  if  it  were 
not  the  Training  School. 

Third.  While  we  had  in  the  first  year— 1890  to  1891—150  boys 
who  went  to  the  Cheder  three  to  four  hours  a  day,  and  six  hours  on 
Saturdays  and  Sundays,  there  were  only  twenty-four  this  year,  and 
the  time  in  Cheder  was  limited  to  one  hour  daily. 

Fourth.  We  make  it  our  special  task  to  begin  with  tiie  care  for 
the  physical  condition  of  our  pupils.  "  Cleanliness"  is  our  watchword! 
We  have  ample  facilities  for  this  department  and  make  the  best  use  of 
them.  Children  come  to  school  dirty,  filthy  and  carelessly  dressed. 
We  wash  them  and  correct  every  thing  so  long  until  they  do  it  at 
home.  It  soon  becomes  the  vital  necessity  for  the  child  to  be  clean — 
a  habit — and  much  is  then  gained.     Parents,  especially  mothers,  fre- 


336  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

quently  complain  that  their  children  wash  themselves  too  much,  and 
too  often  at  home,  want  shoe-blacking  for  every  day's  use,  a  hair-brush 
and  the  luxury  of  a  tooth  brush,  etc.  In  these  children  we  have  then 
our  strongest  supporters  and  in  many  cases  the  little  ones  have  favor- 
ably changed  the  conditions  at  home. 

Fifth.  Though  we  do  not  teach  Religion,  our  school  exercises  a 
deep  and  true  religious  influence  upon  children  and  parents;  they  are, 
unbeknown  to  themselves,  constantly  imbibing  ethical  principles  and 
acquiring  moral  habits  from  the  discipline  of  the  school  and  the  nature 
of  the  subjects  taught. 

Sixth.  The  workshops  especially  have  their  good  influence  upon 
the  pupils.  In  tliese  shops  they  not  only  learn  to  better  understand 
and  digest  the  lessons  taught  in  the  class-room,  but  are  also  prepared 
for  practical  life,  more  especially  learn  to  handle  and  to  love  mechani- 
cal woi'k,  and  are  thereby  drawn  away  from  the  usual  path  of  peddling 
and  petit  commerce,  f<n-  which  so  many  of  them  have  a  special  prefer- 
ence. Our  graduates  will  not  become  peddlers  or  junk  dealers  or 
paupers.  Dr.  Stolz,  in  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the  School,  says: 
"  In  shm-t,  the  Jewish  Ti'aiiiing  School  goes  to  the  root  of  Jewish 
poverty;  it  kills  the  germs  that  produce  it,  instead  of  hiding  its 
nakedness  for  a  short  time  with  a  gift  of  money.  Relief  Societies 
may  make  paupers.  Training  Schools  never  can.  Relief  Societies  may 
encourage  improvidence,  Training  Schools  teach  providence;  and  we 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  lessons  taught  the  children  in 
our  school  will  react  upon  the  parents,  and  that  in  the  course  of  time 
these  children  will  not  only  be  able  to  bring  them  substantial,  material 
assistance,  but  will  also  bring  cleanliness,  order,  beauty,  and  even 
ciiltui'*',  into  the  homes  that  are  now  uninviting  and  forbidding." 

>Scve)ith.  The  Tnuning  School  is  so  arranged  and  conducted  that 
not  only  the  bi-iglitest  and  strongest,  but  also  the  dullest  is  made  to 
feel  that  there  is  a  station  in  life  which  he  can  occupy  with  credit  and 
profit,  and  the  weakest  is  made  to  feel  that  he  need  not  despair  of  his 
weakness. 

Our  school  is  now  three  years  old  and  we  have  good  cause  to  be 
satisfied  witii  the  visible  results  in  our  graduates. 

Of  the  thirty-one  graduates  of  91,  eight  returned  to  take  another 
year  of  schooling,  while  of  the  twenty-three  left,  four  girls  became 
kindergartners,  and  one  boy,  Bennie  Platchinsky,  became  the  assistant 
to  the  teacher  in  the  workshop  in  our  school.  Rebecca  Arouer,  one 
of  the  kindergartners,  is  still  with  us,  assists  in  the  kindergarten  in 
the  morning  and  studies  in  the  Chicago  Kindergarten  Association  with 
Mrs.  Putnam    in   the  afternoon.      Bennie  Platchinsky  has  been  assist- 


TRAINING    SCHOOLS.  337 

ant  during  the  last  year  in  the  sloyd  department;  has  continued  his 
literary  studies  successfully,  and  is  to-day  able  to  teach  "  wood  sloyd" 
in  the  primary  grades.  Of  the  eighteen  left,  three  are  type-setters 
in  the  printing  offices,  two  have  become  farmers,  ten  are  engaged 
in  business  houses  of  this  citv  and  the  remaining  three  we  have  not 
seen  of  late,  so  can  not  tell  what  they  are  doing. 

Of  the  twenty-six  of  last  year — 1892 — -seven  returned  to  take 
another  year's  course.  The  other  nineteen  are  employed  as  follows : 
One  Louis  Platchiusky,  is  a  pupil  of  the  Art  Institute,  of  this  city. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  life  class,  and  Mr.  French,  director  of  the  In- 
stitute, has  repeatedly  praised  Louis'  progress  and  ingenuity.  An- 
other boy,  Bennie  Ellison,  was  a  pupil  of  the  Art  School  for  six 
months.  He  is  especially  efficient  in  designing  and  mechanical  draw- 
ing. He  is  continuing  his  studies  in  the  night  class  since  January  of  this 
year  and  is  in  business  during  the  year.  He  gives  satisfaction  in  both 
phices.  Three  of  the  boys  are  type-setters,  one  boy  and  one  girl  are 
learning  telegraphy,  nine  are  in  business — four  of  these  nine  are  with 
Hart,  Schaffuer  &  Marx,  and  the  firm  seems  to  be  pleased  and  satis- 
fied with  the  progress  and  conduct  of  tlie  boys.  One  girl  is  house- 
keeping at  home  and  assists  her  mother  ;  being  a  perfect  seamstress, 
she  is  a  great  help  in  the  way  of  sewing  the  clothes  for  the  children. 
She  is  also  able  to  make  her  own  and  her  mother's  garments.  We  do 
not  know  what  has  become  of  the  remaining  two. 

Of  the  twenty-five  graduates  of  this  year — 1893 — all  except  jonr 
found  positions,  the  details  of  which  are  not  yet  known  to  me. 

With  the  Training  School  is  also  connected  a  night  school,  for 
both  men  and  women,  who  felt  the  need  of  mental  culture  and  are  de- 
sirous of  acquiring  the  language  of  the  country,  and  fitting  themselves 
still  further  for  the  task  in  life.  Tiie  night  school  is  not  an  annex, 
but  a  necessary  complement  of  the  day  school. 

All  show  great  eagerness  to  learn,  which  characterizes  men  such 
as  one  would  suppose,  on  account  of  their  age,  to  have  outgrown  the 
period  of  instruction.  There  is  no  question  that  those  who  attend  the 
night  sessions  carry  away  with  them  knowledge  which  will  be  imme- 
diately avaihvble  for  them  in  their  efforts  to  maintain  themselves  and 
their  families. 

Tlie  night  school  consists  of  two  departments,  male  and  female. 
Each  department  again  consists  of  four  classes.  The  male  de[)art- 
ment  receives  instruction  in  tlie  English  branches  only.  The  highest 
class  is  also  taught  book-keeping  and  commercial  correspondence.  All 
receive  some  instruction  in  the  United  States  history  and  geography, 
22 


338  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

aud  are  made  familiar  with  the  Constitution  of  the  Commonwealth. 
Two  hundred  and  sixty  men  were  enrolled  during  the  last  year;  the 
average  attendance  was  120  ;  forty  were  above  fifty  years  of  age,  six- 
ty-two between  thirty  and  fifty,  eighty-four  between  twenty  and  thirty, 
aud  seventy-four  between  fourteen  aud  eighteen  years  of  age.  All 
classes  assemble  four  times  a  week  in  the  evening,  from  7:30  to  9:30; 
respite,  7:45  to  9:45. 

The  female  department  has  200  enrolled,  with  an  average  attend- 
ance of  105 ;  there  were  only  twenty-two  above  thirty  years  of  age. 
The  rest  were  girls  from  fourteen  to  twenty-two.  The  pupils  of  this 
department,  too,  are  taught  in  four  classes.  Each  one  is  compelled  to 
study  the  elements  of  the  English  language.  One-third  of  them  took, 
in  addition  to  English,  a  course  in  sewing  and  dress  making,  which 
department  is  optional.  At  the  end  of  December  thirty-two  jzirls 
were  dismissed  from  the  dress  making  department  who  were  able  to 
finish  a  plain  dress,  waist  and  all,  without  any  assistance,  and  all  of 
them  found  positions  in  business  houses  as  dress  makers,  or  work  in 
private  families  as  seamstresses. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen — Allow  me  to  conclude  with  the  question  : 
Has  the  Common  School  curriculum  provided  for  all  these  needs 
indicated  and  met  in  our  Trainiug  School? 


PERSONAL   SERVICE,  339 


PERSONAL  SERVICE. 

By  dr.  a.  GUTTMAN. 


I  desire  to  press  the  stamp  of  approval  upon  that  which  has  been 
said  here  to-night  in  behalf  of  the  Jewish  poor,  and  more  especially 
of  the  Jewish  immigrants.  Now,  it  is  true.  Organized  Charity,  Jewish 
Training  Schools,  Popular  Lecture  Societies,  Social  Settlements,  all 
these  are  comparatively  new,  they  are  yet  in  a  state  of  incipiency ;  but 
on  America's  free  soil,  and  bathed  in  the  sunshine  of  love  and  eulisht- 
enment,  they  give  fair  promise  to  grow,  to  thrive,  and  to  ripen  into 
perfection.  History  is  making  fast  in  our  time.  Every  year,  we 
might  almost  say  each  day,  brings  new  and  wonderful  accessions  of 
knowledge.  Science,  witli  its  marvelous  reaches  of  discovery,  its  sub- 
lime generalizations  and  daring  conjectures,  outstrips  anticipation  and 
staggers  prophecy.  Not  a  province  of  thought,  of  knowledge,  of 
action,  that  does  not  feel  the  push  and  the  thrill  that  is  imparted  by 
the  awakened  spirit  of  our  time.  Man  is  subduing  the  earth,  is 
slowly  eliminating  its  barbarism  and  its  savagery,  and  is  to  make  the 
desert  bloom  and  all  the  wilderness  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  He  is  sub- 
duing himself;  slowly  lifting  himself  to  heights  of  intelligence,  of  a 
life  illumined  and  swayed  by  thought  and  reason.  The  spirit  of  hu- 
manity is  awakening,  and  all  the  strata  of  society,  the  lowest,  the 
poorest,  the  most  neglected  in  the  past,  are  to  be  raised,  warmed,  en- 
franchised by  its  ray. 

But  how  can  this  be  done?  How  can  we  Jews,  for  instance, 
transform  the  immigrants  coming  to  us  from  barbarous  Russia,  neg- 
lected, impoverished,  discouraged,  into  resolute,  self-helpful,  alert  men 
and  women?  How  can  we  raise  them  to  the  plane  of  intellectual  and 
moral  worth  of  a  true  citizenship,  and  a  fellowship  of  humanity? 
Can  these  new  needs  be  met  with  an  antiquated  machinery  ?  Can  the 
existing  evils  be  abolished  by  spasmodic  and  haphazard  methods? 
No.  As  in  every  department  of  our  complex  civilization,  we  are 
bringing  the  power  of  system,  of  invention,  and  of  organization  to  our 
aid,  so  we  must  do  the  same  in  the  field  of  charity.  New  cuHditions 
require  new  methods.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  we  give  bread  and  coal 
and  money  to  the  poor,  but  we  must  give  our  hand,  our  heart  and 


k 


340  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 

soul.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  give  our  share  by  proxy,  but  we  must 
give  our  own  self;  for  it  will  ever  remain  true,  that  the  greatest  of  all 
gifts  that  you  cau  make  to  the  poor  is  the  gift  of  yourself.  What  is 
needed  to-day,  oh,  so  imperatively  needed,  is  Personal  Service.  Per- 
sonal service  is  the  fairy  wand  which  aloue  can  change  the  shriek  of 
despair  into  a  song  of  triumph;  transform  our  dependent  immigrants 
into  independent  citizens,  and  develop  their  children  into  a  higher 
type  of  manhood  and  womanliood.  You  remember  wliat  Elisha  did 
with  the  sou  of  the  Shunamite  woman.  He  said  tu  his  servant: 
"  Run,  take  this  staff  of  mine,  and  put  it  upon  the  dead  child."  And 
tlie  servant  ran  and  took  the  staff  and  put  it  upon  the  body  of  the 
dead  child,  but  it  did  not  do  a  bit  of  good.  Tliis  expresses  the  result 
of  charity  by  proxy. 

Then  Eh'sha  went  and  stretched  himself  upon  the  boy,  with  his 
mouth  to  his  mouth,  his  eyes  to  his  eyes,  and  he  was  brought  back  to 
warmth  and  cheer  and  love  of  earti)ly  life. 

This  expresses  the  power  of  Personal  Service.  If  we  would 
awaken  the  boys  and  girls  of  our  immigrants  to  a  better  and  purer 
life,  if  we  would  render  them  useful  to  themselves,  useful  to  their  pa- 
rents, and  useful  to  the  whole  community,  we  must  get  nearer  to 
them  ;  we  must  come  in  closer  touch  with  them,  and  serve  them  with 
head,  heart,  and  mind. 

Time  does  not  permit  me  to  outline  to  you  the  sphere  of  Personal 
Service  Societies,  but  let  me  say,  that  the  Sisterhoods,  with  their 
"Circles  of  Ten,"  which  have  been  recently  organized  in  many  of  our 
congregations  in  the  East,  West,  South,  and  North,  are  based  upon 
the  principles  of  Personal  Service.  These  Sisterhoods  blossom  and 
bear  fruit;  they  are  alive  and  powerful  in  many  of  our  larger  congre- 
gations ;  and  what  has  been  possibh^  in  large  congregations  is  also  pos- 
sible in  small  congregations,  for  all  that  is  needed  is  a  few  women,  im- 
bued with  the  spirit  of  fidelity,  love,  and  sympathy,  and  I  venture  to 
say  such  are  to  be  found  in  every  congregation,  the  smallest  not  ex- 
cepted. To  woman's  loyalty  and  woman's  self-sacrifice  the  world  owes 
some  of  its  greatest  achievements.  She  has  rocked  its  cradles  and 
soothed  its  sorrows ;  she  has  taught  its  teachers  and  trained  its  heroes ; 
she  has  wept  over  its  miseries,  and  been  the  sunshine  of  its  life,  and 
she  will  continue  to  be  the  angel  of  mercy,  the  angel  of  love,  in  the 
midst  of  human  society. 

And  now,  before  I  concludo,  I  desire  to  make  one  or  two  practical 
suggesti«)ns. 

1.  Let  the  Sisterhoods  in  our  large  congregations  send  forth  some 


PERSONAL   SERVICE.  341 

of  their  able  members  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  sinnlar  Personal 
Service  Societies  in  smaller  congregations. 

2.  To  the  "  Sisterhood"  of  Personal  Service  should  also  be  added 
a  "Brotherhood"  of  Personal  Service.  Not  only  women,  but  men 
too,  are  called  upon  to  bring  their  sacrifices  of  kindness,  sympathy, 
energy,  and  practical  wisdom  upon  the  altar  of  humanity. 

"  If  you  have  any  task  to  do, 
Let  me  whisper,  friend,  to  you. 
Do  it. 

If  you  have  any  thing  to  love. 
As  a  blessing  from  above, 
Love  it. 

If  you  have  any  thing  to^give, 
That  another's  joy  may  live, 
Give  it. 

If  you  know  what  torch  to  light, 
Guiding  others  through  the  night, 
Light  it. . 

Whether  life  be  bright  or  drear. 
There  's  a  message  sweet  and  clear, 
Whispered  down  to  every  ear, 
Hear  it."- 

With  these  words  ringing  in  our  ears,  let  us  go  home,  and  as 
years  roll  by,  may  we  more  perfectly  learn  the  lesson  of  loving,  of 
giving,  of  serving,  of  serving  the  poor,  the  ignorant,  and  the  suffering; 
and  in  serving  them,  we  serve  ourselves,  we  serve  the  country,  we 
serve  the  world,  and  above  all,  we  serve  God. 


342  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 


POPULAR  LECTURES. 

By  dr.  a.  M.  RADIN,  New  York. 


"  What  shall  we  do  for  the  Russian  immigrants?  "  This  is  a  prob- 
lem, the  solution  of  which  urgently  demands  our  fullest  attention. 
Whether  they  are  desirable  or  nndesirable  as  immigrants — we  must 
take  into  consideration  that  they  do  not  come  to  our  hospitable  shores 
by  their  own  volition,  prompted  merely  by  an  irresistible  desire  to 
emigrate  to  foreign  countries ;  they  come  to  the  land  of  the  free  and 
the  noble  by  compulsion.  Expelled  from  their  native  country  for  no 
fault  of  their  own,  but  simply  on  account  of  their  fealty  and  adher- 
ence toward  their  ancestral  faith,  do  they  look  for  a  place  of  refuge, 
which  they  can  not  possibly  obtain  in  the  European  countries. 

They  are  now  in  large  numbers  among  us,  and  it  is  our  duty  to 
do  all  in  our  power  for  the  amelioration  of  their  material,  moral,  and 
mental  conditions.  Not  only  noble  and  philanthropic  sentiments  im- 
pose upon  us  the  difficult  task  to  take  care  of  them  until  they  become 
self-supporting,  but  practical  wisdom,  our  own  honor  and  social  stand- 
ing in  the  community  at  large  continually  admonish  us  to  make  efforts 
for  their  moral  and  mental  elevation.  We  may  be  disinclined  to  iden- 
tify ourselves  with  them,  we  may  denounce  them,  we  may  join  the  un- 
American  cry,  "America  only  for  Americans!"  It  will  be  of  no 
avail.  We  can  not  deny  our  close  connections  to  them  by  indissoluble 
ties  of  race  and  faith.  The  civilized  world,  and  especially  our  Amer- 
ican fellow-citizens,  will  make  us  res{)onsible  for  their  faults  and  short- 
coming*. If  we,  contrary  to  the  historical  traditions  of  our  glorious 
past,  should  deny  our  solidarity  with  them,  our  brethren  in  faith,  our 
friends  and  enemies  among  the  other  nations  will  constantly  and  em- 
phatically remind  us  of  the  .same.  The  saying  of  our  sages,  "All 
Israelites  are  accountaiile  for  each  other,"  is  and  always  will  remain 
an  undeniable  truth,  lasting  as  long  as  we  should  have  a  Jewish 
history. 

But  we  have  no  reason  whatever  to  be  ashamed  of  the  Russian 
immigrants  and  consequently  no  cause  to  denounce  them.  They  be- 
came, in  spite  of  the  narrow-minded  attacks  made  upon  them  by  Sen- 
ator Chandler  and   Dr.  Senner,  in   a   conij)aratively  short   time,  good 


POPULAR   LECTURES.  343 

aud  useful  citizens.  They  are  neither  paupers,  nor  a  class  of  ignorant 
people;  neither  do  they  come  hither  with  tlie  intention  of  making 
America  only  their  temporary  home,  as  the  Chinese  and  many  of  the 
Italians  are  doing.  They  are,  as  a  general  rule,  peaceable  aud  law- 
abiding  people,  loyal  toward  the  public  school  and  the  American  insti- 
tutions— by  far  more  than  any  other  foreign  element  in  the  Union. 

We  assist  the  poor  aud  needy  among  them  in  the  first  years  after 
their  landing  to  our  shores,  by  granting  them  material  help.  But 
charitable  institutions  and  individuals  often  fail  to  accomplish  the  de- 
sired end.  Habitual  beggars  and  undeserving  people  are  sometimes 
benefited  by  the  mode  and  method  applied  by  us  in  dispensing  of 
charity,  while  thousands  of  worthy  and  work-loving  immigrants  earn 
their  livelihood  without  appealing  to  the  generosity  of  their  brethren. 

Therefore,  more  useful  and  more  desirable  for  them  than  material 
help  and  assistance  is  their  moral  and  intellectual  elevation.  We 
should  leave  the  education  of  their  children  entirely  to  the  public 
school.  They  easily  become  Americanized  with  all  the  faults  and  vir- 
tues of  Americans,  with  all  their  good  peculiarities  and  bad  habits; 
and  children  not  seldom  exercise  even  a  beneficial  influence  upon  their 
parents. 

AVe  must  always  keep  before  our  eyes  the  grown-up  immigrants. 
Some  of  them  are  naturally  bright  and  gifted  and  are  more  or  less 
familiar  with  the  knowledge  of  Hebrew  lore,  though  they  did  not  en- 
joy the  advantages  of  a  scientific  method  and  training.  Nearly  all  of 
them  are  desirous  of  learning.  The  main  trouble  with  the  majority  of 
the  educated  among  the  Russian  Jewish  immigrants  is  that  they 
harbor  in  their  minds  false  notions  and  conceptions  of  liberty.  They 
often  confound  it  with  licentiousness.  In  Russia  every  intelligent 
man,  including  even  some  of  the  high  officials,  is  a  socialist,  commun- 
ist, nihilist,  or  anarchist.  Religion,  in  the  synagogue  and  in  the 
churcli  as  well,  consists  there  in  obsolete  ceremonies  and  observances  ; 
and  n)en  that  are  endowed  with  a  souud  judgment  and  commence  to 
think  for  themselves,  inevitably  must  be  imbued  with  aversion  and 
disgust  at  all  religious  doctrines  and  become  atheists  and  agnostics. 
Alexander  v.  Humboldt,  in  his  masterwork,  "  Cosmos,"  designates  the 
volcanoes  as  the  safety-valves  of  the  earth.  Without  them,  he  says, 
we  would  be  more  frequently  exposed  to  earthquakes.  And  so  may 
Ave  call  liberty  of  the  press  and  freedom  of  speech  the  safety-valves  of 
every  country.  In  Russia  these  safety-valves  are  tightly  closed,  and 
the  immediate  consequence  of  this  despotic  system  of  government  is 
the  disturbing  and  rebellious   spirit    that   characterizes  even  in  this 


344  OBGANIZED    FORCES. 

country  a  cousiderable  number  of  the  intelligent  Russian  immigrants 
and  those  that  are  susceptible  to  liberal  views. 

This  intellectual  disease — sit  venia  verbo — can  and  must  be  cured 
by  applying  the  proper  remedies,  the  best  of  which  are  popular  lec- 
tures, not  on  dry,  scientific  subjects;  for  those  that  wish  to  study 
them  thoroughly  will  surely  seek  and  find  the  proper  sources  and 
places,  where  they  can  acquire  a  profound  knowledge  of  chemistry, 
mathematics,  medicine,  physics,  astronomy,  and  the  like.  Select 
rather  practical  topics  of  everyday  life.  Try  to  explain  to  them,  in 
plain  language,  intelligible  to  and  understood  by  them,  the  difference 
between  despotic  Russia,  the  shame  and  di.-grace  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, and  free  America,  the  pride  and  glory  of  our  enlightened  age; 
that,  while  in  Russia  nihilism  or  anarchism  can  easily  be  explained 
and  to  a  certain  extent  even  justified,  it  is  criminal  in  this  beloved 
country  of  ours;  that  every  attempt  to  defy  the  law,  or  to  overthrow 
it  by  brutal  force  of  an  ill-advised  and  misguided  mob,  or  even  the 
teaching  of  such  a  pernicious  doctrine,  is  a  danger  to  our  free  and 
noble  constitution  and  must  be  thoroughly  eradicated. 

Popular  lectures  on  history,  spiced  with  anecdotes  and  bon  mots, 
are  strongly  to  be  recommended.  For  the  Russian  Jews  love  historical 
studies  and  understand  them  quite  well.  Draw  parallels  from  the 
events  and  occurrences  of  the  past  to  their  present  conditions. 

Many  of  the  Russian  immigrants  have  brought  along  with  them 
the  false  notion  that  America  is  a  country  of  swindlers  and  humbugs, 
and  that  immigrants  can  get  rich  here  only  by  fraudulent  manipula- 
tions and  transactions.  The  endeavors  of  the  lecturer  should,  there- 
fore, be  directed  toward  that  end,  to  prove  to  them  irrefutably  that 
honesty  is  the  best  policy  in  this  country,  as  elsewhere.  Tell  them 
the  history  of  the  struggles  and  labors  and  hardships  of  the  first  set- 
tlers on  this  continent,  that  they  might  possibly  derive  the  conclusion 
that  only  through  honest  and  hard  labor,  through  patience,  energy, 
and  perseverance,  could  they  possibly  succeed  to  make  a  comfortable 
living  and  even  to  accumulate  wealth. 

Be  careful  not  to  hurt  their  feelings  by  denouncing  them,  as  a 
whole,  as  unclean.  Uncleanliness  is  never  the  cause  of  poverty,  but 
the  consequence  thereof.  In  crowded  quarters,  used  in  daytime  as 
sweating  shops  and  during  the  night  as  sleeping-places  for  boarders, 
the  unfortunate  can  not  possibly  observe  the  rules  of  cleanliness,  as 
do  our  moneyed  brethren  in  their  palatial  residences  in  the  aristocratic 
quarters  of  the  large  cities.  My  experience  in  New  York  City  and 
in  other  densely  populated  places  of  the  Union  has  taught  me  that  the 
immigrants  give  up  their  voluntarily  selected  ghettos  as  soon  as  they 


POPULAR    LECTURES.  345 

cau  afford  to  do  so  and  keep  themselves  clean.  But,  indirectly,  the 
lecturer  may  allude  to  the  filthy  quarters  of  the  Chinese,  Italians,  and 
other  nationalities,  and  they  will  take  a  lesson  from  such  examples 
that  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness;  that  cleanliness  of  the  body  is 
closely  connected  with  purity  of  the  soul.  Imbue  them  with  the  con- 
viction that  the  frequent  washings  of  our  hands  and  bodies,  prescribed 
by  the  rabbinical  teachings,  were  intended  to  keep  ns  pure  and  clean 
in  body  and  soul. 

The  lecturer  should  by  no  means  appear  before  them  as  if  he 
were  standing  upon  the  exalted  heights  of  culture  and  civilization, 
and  has  now  descended  to  them  in  order  to  teach  the  semi-barba- 
rians— as  many  of  the  so-called  philanthropists  choose  to  call  the  poor 
immigrants — morals  and  refinement.  He  would  never  accomplish  the 
purpose  he  sincerely  looks  for.  They  would  ridicule  his  wise  instruc- 
tions by  saying :  "  It  is  easy  for  him  to  speak  of  all  the  good  qualities 
which  he  possesses  and  in  which  we  are  wanting,  because  he  was  born 
and  brought  up  under  favorable  conditions  and  surroundings.  If  he 
were  born  in  Russia  and  suffered  as  much  as  we  did,  under  tlie  un- 
bearable yoke  of  poverty  and  distress,  of  oppression  and  humiliation, 
he  would  have  been  much  worse  than  we  are." 

Speaking  of  their  faults  and  repulsive  manners,  the  lecturer 
should  not  address  them  with  the  tersu  "  vou,"  but  he  should  rather 
use  the  word  "  we."  By  identifying  himself  with  them,  he  would  do  no 
harm  to  himself  ;  he  most  decidedly  would  not  fail  to  find  entrance  for 
his  admonitions  and  good  advice  into  their  hearts  and  win  their  con- 
fidence. 

The  lecturer  should  make  use  of  the  vernacular  when  he  speaks 
to  those  immigrants  that  are  already  familiar  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  English  tongue.  To  address  the  immigrants  in  English  before 
they  have  acquired  the  knowledge  of  the  same,  would  be  useless,  a 
loss  of  time  and  labor.  It  is  true,  they  shall,  and  must,  and  will 
learn  English.  But  you  must  first  explain  to  them  the  necessity  of 
learning  the  vernacular  in  a  language  which  is  understood  by  them. 
A  plain  and  intelligible  German,  handled  with  skill,  free  from  all 
poetical  phrases  and  bombastic  terms,  is  understood  by  almost  all  the 
Russian  immigrants. 

The  popular  lectures  should  contain  Biblical  and  Talmudical  quo- 
tations, also  ioterpretations  of  allegorical  sayings  of  our  sages  which 
are  fully  understood  and  appreciated  by  the  immigrants  ;  these  quota- 
tions should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  they  properly  could  be  applied 
to  their  duties  and  prospects  in  this  country. 

The  Hebrew-German  dialect,  the  so-called  Jiidisch-Deutsch,  is  un- 


346  ORGANIZED    FORGES. 

justly  called  jargon  ;  for,  as  a  language  .spoken  by  more  tliau  six 
million  Jews,  it  has  the  same  right  to  exist  as  the  Bohemian,  Slavonic, 
Servian,  Roumanian,  and  Bulgarian  languages.  Nevertheless,  should 
this  dialect  under  no  circumstances  be  used  by  the  lecturer  that  ad- 
dresses the  immigrants.  The  Jiidisch-Deutsch  was  the  badge  and 
mark  of  disgrace  of  our  German  co-religionists  till  the  beginning  of 
this  century.  The  iratnigrauts  can  sooner  adapt  themselves  to  modern 
culture  when  we  arouse  in  their  minds  the  ambition  of  speaking  a  pure 
language  and  to  be  benefited  by  the  rich  treasures  of  its  literature. 

Speaking  on  religious  topics,  the  lecturer  should  not  appear  as  the 
representative  and  mouth-piece  of  orthodox  or  reform  Judaism.  He 
must  try  to  represent  the  neutral  standpoint  of  our  religion,  as  based 
upon  an  enlightened  faith  and  pure  morality.  If  he  makes  himself 
the  defender  of  orthodox  absurdities,  he  at  once  will  be  denounced  by  the 
free-thinking  immigrants.  If  he  allows  himself  to  appear  as  a  reform 
advocate,  the  obscure  fanatics  will  seize  the  first  opportunity  to  decry 
him  as  an  atheist  and  agnostic,  as  a  hired  tool  of  Christian  mission- 
ary societies.  Leave  all  ceremonies  and  observances  out  of  question. 
Speak  only  on  the  essence  of  Judaism,  for  therein  prevails  no  differ- 
ence of  opinion  among  Jews.  Admonish  them  to  observe  decency 
and  decorum  in  their  synagogues  in  every  form  of  worship  and  ritual 
thev  find  advisable  to  choose  for  themselves. 

The  lecturer  should  be,  if  possible,  a  countryman  of  theirs,  who 
was  born  and  brought  up  under  the  same  conditions  and  surroundings 
with  them,  but  was  fortunate  enough  to  receive  his  education  either  in 
a  civilized  country  of  Europe  or  in  America.  He  should  at  least  be 
a  man  who  knows  the  Russian  immigrants  thoroughly  with  all  their 
good  and  bad  qualities.  He  has  not  to  speak,  but  he  must  understand 
their  jargon  if  you  choose  to  so  call  their  language.  He  must  be 
fiimiliar  with  all  the  conditions,  circumstances,  and  surroundings  that 
have  produced  the  good  and  bad  qiu\lities,  the  favorable  and  unfavor- 
able peculiarities  of  the  Russian  Jews.  A  physician  can  hardly  cure 
successfully  the  i)atient  without  knowing  the  cause  and  nature  of  the 
sickness,  without  even  understanding  the  language  of  the  patient  in- 
trusted to  his  treatment.  He  would  try  to  cure  his  headache  while  he 
suffers  from  consumption.  It  is,  therefore,  a  difficult  task  for  a  physi- 
cian to  give  his  medical  treatment  to  infants  that  are  yet  unable  to 
speak.  He  is  mostly  compelled  to  guess  the  cause  and  place  of  his 
patient's  ailings,  and  he  is  not  always  successful. 

The  lecturer  juust,  before  all,  feel  himself  attached  to  his  immi- 
grant brethren  with  fraternal  love  and   symj)athy.     Without  this  at- 


rOrUI.AR   LECTURES.  347 

tachraent  he  neither  will  exhaust  all  his  power  and  energy  in  their  be- 
half, nor  will  they  submit  to  his  treatment. 

Unfortunately,  those  who  stand  at  the  head  of  our  charitable  or- 
ganizations— not  even  the  chief  managers  of  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  fund 
excepted — do  not  know  the  true  character  and  nature  of  the  Russian 
Jew.  They  often  assist  the  unworthy  and  refuse  their  support  to  those 
that  are  deserving.  Though  they  are  noble  and  generous  enough  not 
to  hate  the  Russian  Jew  immigrants,  they  do  not  love  them  either. 
For  that  reason  our  charities  do  not  accomplish  that  amount  of  good 
that  could  be  expected  from  them,  and  sometimes  are  they  an  utter 
foil  u  re. 


348  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 


UNION  OF  YOUNG  ISRAEL. 

By  S.  ELDEIDGE. 


WHAT  THE  YOUNG  PEOPLE  CAN  AND  SHOULD  DO  FOR  JUDAISM. 

Young  Israel  is  awakening  to  its  responsibilities. 

This  age  of  Congresses  and  organization  is  auspicious  for  the  move- 
ment. We  have  our  Y.  M.  H.  A.,  our  prospective  Jewish  Chautauqua, 
and  the  Jewish  Publication  Society,  and  other  organized  associations, 
striving  to  aid  and  uphold  Judaism.  Then  why  can  not  the  young 
people  organize  a  Young  People's  Religious  Hebrew  Endeavor  Society, 
for  the  practice  of  charity  and  the  advancement  of  Judaism,  tiirough 
their  individual  efforts  and  by  their  own  methods. 

About  two  years  ago,  through  the  columns  of  the  Sabbath  Visitor, 
the  idea  of  a  young  people's  religious  society  for  American  Judaism 
was  advanced  by  one  of  the  contributors  to  that  paper.  And  through 
his  efforts  the  idea  was  enlarged  and  promulgated. 

The  week  of  August,  1893,  was  arranged  to  perfect  the  national 
organizatiim  of  that  order,  the  results  of  which  are  now  known  to 
all.  The  objects  of  the  Association  are  set  forth  and  explained  in 
this  preamble  :  Whereas,  the  cultivation  of  morality,  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Jewisli  tenets  of  religion,  and  the  practice  of  charity 
stand  prominently  among  the  duties  of  all  Jews;  and  whereas,  the 
most  beneficial  effects  results  from  the  efforts  and  acts  of  the 
young  men  and  women  of  Israel  ;  whereas,  the  establislimout  of  an 
order  based  upon  the  Jewish  teachings  and  for  tiie  cause  of  charity  and 
the  promulgating  the  tenets  of  Judaism  to  the  world  througli  young 
Israel  is  highly  commended  and  believed  to  be  j)roductive  of  much 
good  to  Judaism  and  a  vast  benefit  to  all  luimanity  ;  and  whereas  a 
higher  standard  in  the  code  of  morals,  and  tiie  practice  of  charity 
and  the  disseminating  the  Jewish  doctrine  are  greatly  to  be  desired, 
therefore  an  Association  to  be  known  as  the  Young  People's  Hebrew 
lOndeavor  Association  is  hereby  estal)lished,  constituted,  and  ordained, 
and  we,  the  founders  thereof,  do  publish  and  declare  for  its  government 
this  constitution. 

The  National  Association  is  in  a  sense  supreme,  being  composed 
of  auxiliary  societies  or  branches.     Each    branch   will    be  a  separate. 


4r 

UNION    OF   YOUNG   ISRAEL.  349 

iudependent,  self-governing  society,  conformable  to  the  laws  of  the 
National  Association.  The  National  Society  has  its  rules  and  regu- 
lations, and  no  changes  can  be  made  unless  by  a  vote  of  a  majority 
of  the  Branches.  The  purposes  of  the  National  Association  is  to 
meet  and  confer  concerning  different  modes  and  methods  that  will 
benefit  the  religion  at  large  and  the  Branches.  For  instance,  a 
paper  devoted  to  the  order  can  and  will  be  sustained  by  tliem. 

It  is  even  possible  that  the  Union  Sunday-school  work  might  be 
successfully  taken  up  by  the  National  Order,  so  Jewish  literature 
can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  all  Jewish  children  at  a  nominal  sum. 
And  many  other  works  will  be  in  the  scope  of  this  part  of  the  order, 
of  which  I  will  not  now  enter  into  details. 

The  Branches,  which  are  the  strength  aud  hope  of  the  order,  is 
where  the  main  work  for  our  religion  is  to  be  done,  and  where  the 
young  people  will  be  permitted  to  do  active  religious  work. 

The  Branches  should  be  composed  of  only  earnest  aud  serious 
workers  for  the  advancement  of  Judaism,  irrespective  of  age. 

In  seeking  members  you  should  look  to  the  fact  that  they  will  be 
congenial,  and  if  not  congenial,  make  it  so  for  them.  It  would  not 
be  a  bad  idea  to  make  each  one  sign  a  pledge  tliat  lie  or  she  will  at- 
tend meetings  regularly  and  take  part  in  the  exercises  and  perform 
his  or  her  duty. 

Each  Branch  adopts  its  own  program  for  their  respective  meet- 
ing;s,  and  also  bv-laws,  so  as  not  to  conflict  witli  the  constitution  and 
by-laws  of  the  National  Order.  In  order  to  make  my  plan  clearer  I 
will  suggest  an  ideal  program,  as  follows:  After  you  have  elected  your 
officers,  do  not  permit  your  offices  to  be  jjadges  of  distinction,  but 
only  means  by  which  you  can  better  serve  our  cause.  Let  tlie  Presi- 
dent appoint  some  one  to  conduct  the  exercises  for  the  following  meet- 
ing, and  also  appoint  an  assistant  in  case  of  the  leader's  absence. 

Exercises  :  Open  with  a  song  ;  Scripture  reading  by  leader  ;  song. 
Have  a  religious  question  or  character  for  discussion  and  let  each 
one  express  a  thought  on  the  subject.  After  all  have  spoken,  have 
a  song.  Do  not  have  the  exercises  over  an  hour.  The  program,  of 
course,  can  be  varied  to  suit  the  wishes  of  the  members  of  the  differ- 
ent Branches.  When  this  short  religious  service  is  over,  bring 
up  the  business  before  the  society,  which  will  be  the  report  of 
different  committees,  sickness,  death,  and  relief  committee,  which 
will  report  all  the  needy  and  indigent  that  have  come  under  the  ob- 
servation of  the  committee,  aud  relief  be  granted  ;  membership  com- 
mittee, those  on  the  lookout  for  new  members;  extension  committee, 
those  conferring  with  other  Branches,  with  a  view  of  extending  the 


350  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 

order ;  Sunday-school  and  decoratiou  committees,  one  to  assist  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school  and  get  new  members,  and  the 
other  to  assist  in  decorating  the  Synagogue  on  needed  occasions; 
entertainment  committee,  to  get  up  an  entertainment  for  each  meet- 
ing, and  also  entertainments  for  raising  funds  for  charit}^  and  such 
other  committees  as  the  wants  of  the  Branches  will  den)aud. 

After  the  business  session  is  over  resolve  the  meetiuo-  into  a  com- 
mittee  of  the  whole,  and  spend  the  time  in  meeting  each  other,  and  by 
kind  words  and  gentle  expression  make  the  young  and  old,  rich  and 
poor,  feel  that  they  are  amongst  friends,  and  then  spend  a  few  mo- 
ments pleasantly  together.  But  do  not  let  the  "social  feature"  be 
the  controlling  element.  Let  the  downfall  of  other  organizations  on 
this  account  prove  a  warning  to  us.  That  an  organization  of  this  na- 
ture is  practical  and  necessary  for  American  Judaism,  has  been  fully 
verified  by  the  progress  that  our  organization  has  made. 

Hampered  on  all  sides,  receiving  no  encouragement  from  where 
encouragement  should  come,  our  jninistry,  we  have  succeeded  in  ar- 
ranging a  National  Meeting  at  Chicago,  and  have  organized  Branches 
of  the  order  in  the  following  cities:  Chicago,  111.;  St.  Louis,  Mo.; 
Cincinnati,  O.;  Springfield,  111.;  Baltimore,  JNId.;  Altooua,  Penn.; 
Jeifersou,  Tex.;  and  Sherman,  Tex.  All  the  Branches  are  making 
good  progress. 

A  society  of  this  nature  is  needed  in  America  especially  for  the 
advancement  of  Judaism,  for  the  practice  of  charity  by  the  young 
folks.  And  it  will  bring  systematic  religious  work  and  exercises  in 
communities  where  otherwise  religious  spirit  would  be  dormant. 

To  accomplish  any  thing  to-day,  it  can  only  be  done  by  organized 
systematic  work.  Every  vocation  of  life  and  all  religious  works  are 
now  so  conducted.  There  has  always  been  a  deficiency  in  our  mode 
of  conducting  our  religious  works  in  excluding  the  efforts  of  the  chil- 
dren in  behalf  of  religion.  It  is  true  we  have  our  Sabbath  Schools, 
but  that  in  a  sense  is  peculiar  to  itself. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  cause  of  this  deficiency  was  because 
heretofore  no  auxiliary  aid  was  needed,  and  all  religious  work  ema- 
nated from  the  synagogue  or  temple  independently. 

But  since  then  many  changes  have  taken  place,  and  there  is  now 
a  very  urgent  demand  for  such  work  for  Judaism.  A  society  of  3'oung 
peo])le  is  especially  needed  in  America  for  the  advancement  of  Juda- 
ism by  the  young  folks. 

Give  me  a  community  of  young  workers,  and  religious  torpidness 
and  indifference  will  not  tlirive.     The  organization  should   have  unity 


UNION    OF    YOUNG    ISRAEL.  351 

of  action  and  purpose,  and  in  its  ranks  it  should  know  no  orthodox, 
no  conservative,  no  reform,  but  only  members  of  the  assoc'ation  with 
the  sole  purpose  of  doing  good  and  helping  our  fellow-man. 

With  an  organization  of  this  nature  as  a  means,  much  good  can 
be  done  directly  for  Judaism.  For  here  the  young  people  can  exercise 
originality  and  independence  in  religious  matters.  They  can  study 
the  teachings  of  our  religion,  and  instill  wiihiu  their  own  breasts  that 
grand  thought  "  that  God  is  the  fountain  and  first  cause  of  all  exist- 
ence, and  that  we  must  love  Him  with  all  our  heart,  soul,  and  might," 
and  in  loving  God  there  lies  tlie  secret  of  all  our  duties. 

A  study  of  the  history  of  our  nation  can  be  pursued  with  great 
advantage,  and  the  Bible  can  be  properly  and  advantageously  studied. 

It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  the  young  Jews  of  to-day  seem  to  think 
their  religious  duties  are  at  an  end  after  leaving  the  Sabbath  School, 
and  that  at  a  very  tender  age.  This  oro-anizatiou  would  be  of  irreat 
aid  to  the  Sabbath  School,  and  they  could  furnish  scholars  and  teach- 
ers from  their  ranks,  and  aid  the  Superintendent  in  many  ways. 

The  young  people  could  practice  active  charity  by  visiting  the 
sick  and  afflicted.  Wholesome  Jewish  literature  could  be  placed  in 
the  hands  of  those  poor  unfortunates  who  are  denied  that  great 
pleasure.  A  national  children's  day  could  be  instituted  by  them,  by 
which  means  they  could  bring  the  sweetest  of  all  offerings,  a  child's 
devotion.  They  could  assist  in  decorating  the  synagogue  on  many  of 
our  beautiful  fasts  and  feasts. 

By  beginning  early  in  their  religious  work,  a  renewed  love  and 
admiration  will  be  instilled  in  the  hearts  of  the  you-nger  generation, 
and  a  grander  impetus  will  be  given  to  our  religion. 

With  the  children  of  to-day  representing  the  learning  and  ad- 
vanoement  of  thousands  of  years  back,  serving  Judaism  with  its  eter- 
nal and  ennobling  principles,  great  w'ill  be  the  future  in  store  for 
Judaism.  And  by  the  proper  adherence  to  its  principles,  we  will  give 
to  the  w^orld  men  of  thought  and  of  action  and  women  of  gentleness 
and  of  sweet  influence. 

We  hope  to  place  in  every  city,  every  town,  and  every  hamlet 
one  of  these  societies.  Then  no  more  will  you  hear  the  cry,  no  relig- 
ious instruction,  no  Rabbi,  no  temples  except  on  special  occasions. 
This  is  the  first  combined  effort  of  Jewish  boys  and  girls  to  organize 
themselves  into  a  religious  body  for  the  advancement  of  our  blessed 
religion.  Its  growth  and  work  is  not  to  be  confined  to  this  continent, 
but  we  want  it  eventually  to  be  welcomed  and  hailed  with  delight 
wherever  any  of  our  co-religionists  reside. 


352  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

The  success  and  future  of  the  organizatiou  depends  on  the  encour- 
ment  that  we  will  receive  from  our  ministers. 

To  the  Jewish  ministry,  I  consign  it  to  your  careful  keeping  and 
attention,  hoping  it  will  grow  under  your  management. 

Will  you  accept  the  charge  ? 


WHAT    ORGANIZED    FORCES   CAN    DO    FOR   JUDAISM.  358 


WHAT  ORGANIZED  FORCES  CAN  DO  FOR  JUDAISM. 

By  rabbi  henry  BERKOWITZ,  PiiiLADKLfniA. 


The  first  three  sessions  of  the  Congress  have  been  devcted  prop- 
erly to  an  exposition  of  doctrine.  The  Motlier  of  Religions  lifts  up 
her  voice  in  the  hearing  of  her  children,  she  I'ejoices  with  a  mother's 
joy  in  their  gathering  together.  She  recalls  the  basic  teachings  of  all 
religions — "There  is  a  God."  She  emphasizes  anew  the  distinctive 
injunction  of  Israel — "  God  is  One."  She  sets  herself  at  once  to  the 
task  of  reconciliation.  Old  misunderstandings,  born  of  the  ill-will  of 
ages,  are  to  be  effaced  ;  the  wrongs  of  centuries,  over  which  with 
bleeding  heart  and  aching  soul  she  has  brooded  so  long  in  anguish, 
are  at  last  to  be  righted.  The  first  effort  has  naturally  and  spontane- 
ously been  directed  to  setting  forth  the  religious  and  moral  doctrines 
of  our  faith  that  our  brethren  of  the  church,  of  the  mosque  or  shrine 
— all  children  of  God — may  know  that  we  are  for  them  not  against 
them  ;  that  they  are  with  us  in  the  one-overshadowing  and  all-impel- 
ling motive  of  building  up  the  righteous  life. 

Now,  after  the  theoretical  let  us  begin  to  consider  the  practical. 

Our  religious  organizations — our  moral  furces^-have  become  the 
property  of  the  religious  world.  Church,  Cathedral  and  Mosque  trace 
their  lineage  to  the  Synagogue  ;  use  its  incomparable  text-book,  the 
Bible  ;  have  adopted  its  ceremonialism,  imbibed  its  spirit.  Therefore, 
we  pass  on  at  once  to  consider  educational  forces,  placing  the  primary 

emphasis  on  these  in  accordance  with  the  Jewish  maxim  "  rTlin  lltD /H 

073  "lJl^3,"  "Education  precedes  all  else." 

In  the  so-called  "  Histories  of  Education  "  but  scant  notice  is 
taken  of  the  contribution  of  the  Jews.  And  this  notice  is  limited  as 
a  rule  to  the  products  of  "  the  Biblical  era."  Nevertheless,  it  is  true 
that  a  continuous  record  of  great  importance  and  undoubted  Avortli 
has  been  inscribed  in  the  annals  of  mankind  by  Jewish  educators. 
The  so-called  "  New  Education,"  in  very  many  of  its  principles  and 
methods,  is  the  Old  Education  of  Judaism.  Some  of  the  greatest 
names  in  the  history  of  educational  development  and  progress  are  the 
23 


354  OKGANIZED   FORCES. 

quaiut  and  unknown  names  of  the  Rabbis  who  were  by  title  and  in 
life  pre-eminently  the  Teachers  of  Men. 

Two  duties  confront  us  to-day  :  To  make  known  to  our  modern 
schoolmen  the  contribution  of  the  Jewish  Scliools  to  education,  and 
to  bring  the  systems  and  disciplines  of  the  modern  schoolmen  into 
fuller  appreciation  and  practice  within  the  organized  forces  of  Jewish 
education. 

The  first  of  these  duties  is  still  all  to  be  done.  The  latter  we 
have  been  and  are  seeking  to  fulfill  with  increasing  zest  and  success  in 
the  elementary  work  of  our  Religious  Schools  for  children,  and  in  the 
higher  seminary  education  of  our  Rabbinical  Colleges. 

It  is  in  the  field  of  the  systematic  poj^ular  education  that  we  are 
as  yet  derelict.  After  the  religious  school  we  have  virtually  nothing 
educational  excepting  for  the  specialist,  the  Rabbinical  student.  The 
normal  school  for  teachers  is  a  sadly  missing  desideratum,  and  the 
needs  are  not  yet  met  of  the  general  reader  who  is  eager,  or  who 
should  be  made  eager,  to  know  of  the  history,  the  language,  the  liter- 
ature which  is  the  vehicle  and  product  of  Jewish  thought,  hope 
and  life. 

To  bring  Jewish  knowledge  to  the  people,  to  cast  the  light  of  in- 
formation into  the  prevailing  darkness  is  our  most  urgent  duty.  This 
is  the  cause  I  have  come  to  champion. 

I  speak  for  the  cause  of  popular  education.  There  is  no  method 
provided,  for  either  Jew  or  non-Jew,  by  which  he  may  acquaint  him- 
self with  Jewish  historv  and  literature.  As  vet  this  knowledge  is  the 
property  of  the  few,  It  should  become  the  knowledge  of  the  multi- 
tudes. Objection  has  been  made  to  such  cheapening  of  knowledge. 
It  is  the  glory  of  America,  in  contrast  with  Russia,  that  knowledge  is 
cheap  here,  it  belongs  to  all  the  people.  Who  shall  dare  to  say  that 
knowledge  is  to  be  confined  to  a  certain  class !  Nay,  let  those  who 
thirst  come  and  drink  of  the  waters  of  learninsr,  and  those  who  are 
hungry  come  and  partake  of  the  bread  of  life. 

We  need  a  system  of  popular  education  on  Jewish  subjects. 
True,  we  have  our  Young  Men  Hebrew  Associations  and  Auxiliary 
Literary  Societies  of  all  names  and  all  kinds.  I  should  be  the  last  to 
depreciate,  by  one  iota,  the  worth  of  these  organizations.  My  purpose 
is,  if  possible,  to  lend  them  a  helping  hand  and  aid  them.  It  is  well 
known  to  you  who  have  had  experience  in  these  societies,  that  when- 
ever they  flourish,  it  is,  as  a  rule,  by  the  self-sacrifice  of  some  one  in- 
dividual, .some  one  who  is  willing  to  be  the  scapegoat,  do  the  work, 
lay  out  the  plans,  and  see  that  they  are  carried  out.  There  is  too 
little  system,  no  bond  of  union,  no  conscious  motive   to   unfailingly 


WHAT   ORGANIZED    FORCES   CAN    DO    FOR   JUDAISM.  355 

impel.  Therefore  these  societies  usually  run  off  into  social  gatherings. 
To  supply  these  needs  and  infuse  into  these  organizations  plan,  motive, 
and  method,  has  been  the  study  of  many.  For  a  number  of  years,  I 
have  been  casting  about  in  my  mind  what  could  be  done,  have  been 
looking  over  the  methods  of  other  denominations  to  learn  how  they 
succeeded,  as  they  do  unquestionably  succeed,  in  winning  the  interest 
and  holding  the  enthusiastic  devotion  of  their  young  people  to  the 
cause  of  religion. 

The  best  I  know  of  is  an  institution  most  thoroughly  American, 
most  effective  in  its  methods,  well  known  under  the  title:  ''The  Chau- 
tauqua Literary  and  Scientific  Circle."  I  have  placed  in  your  hands 
copies  of  a  circular  in  which  is  set  forth  the  object  and  purpose  of  this 
society.  I  want  to  induce  you  to  try  the  method  recommended  by  the 
Chautauqua  Literary  and  Scientific  Circle.  Our  purpose  is  not  to 
segregate  from  our  fellow-men,  but  truly  to  unite  with  all  others,  irre- 
spective of  their  creeds,  in  the  great  work  of  education.  Chautauqua 
claims  to  stand  on  this  broad  foundation.  It  has  welcomed  us  with 
great  generosity  and  broadmiudedness,  and  it  is  a  source  of  great  joy 
to  many  that  there  is  to  be  created  a  "  Department  of  Jewish  Studies" 
in  the  Chautauqua  System  of  Education.  There  may  be  some  here 
who  are  not  familiar  with  this  Chautauqua  movement.  I  will  briefly 
state  its  object  for  the  benefit  of  such.  It  originated  in  a  gathering 
of  Sunday-school  teachers  at  Lake  Chautauqua,  N.  Y.  It  was  organ- 
ized to  supply  the  crying  need  of  teachers  in  religious  schools.  Out  of 
a  small  beginning  grew  an  institution  of  learning  which  seeks  to  sup- 
ply the  needs  of  all  classes,  ages,  and  talents,  beginning  with  the 
youngest  boys  and  girls  and  directing  their  minds  into  ever  widening 
channels  of  knowledge,  and  supplying  the  needs  of  the  old  as  Avell  as 
the  young.  Aid  is  given  especially  to  busy  people,  and  the  suggestion 
is  that  from  three-fourths  to  one  hour's  reading,  alone  or  in  home  cir- 
cles or  local  gatherings,  will  enable  a  person  to  successfully  carry 
through  a  course  of  four  years'  study.  In  the  Summer  time,  the 
Assembly  meets  at  Chautauqua  Lake.  This  is  an  institution  to 
gladden  the  heart  of  any  lover  of  learning.  I  am  able  to  speak 
from  personal  observation  of  the  work  done  there.  Among  their 
teachers  are  professors  from  universities  such  as  John  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity, Yale,  Harvard,  Ann  Arbor.  The  school  lias  sixty  classes — 
among  these  I  noted  three  in  Hebrew  and  one  in  Arabic;  besides,  there 
are  specialties  in  all  kinds  of  art  work,  scientific  work,  combining  de- 
lightful outdoor  pursuits  with  most  delightful  educational  advantages. 
During  two  months  every  summer  this  work  at  Chautauqua  is  carried 
on.     Men  of  note  and  ability  bring  there  the  result  of  their  learning, 


356  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

experience,  and  travel,  and  detail  it  to  all  there  in  the  most  charm- 
ing manner.  During  the  winter  months,  the  readings  enable  per- 
sons who  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  an  education  to  study  at 
home,  at  the  same  time  to  make  the  family  life  mean  something,  by 
gathering  the  parents  and  children  together  in  common  educational  in- 
terests. A  Monthly  Magazine  is  furnished,  which  fully  advises  people 
and  supplies  all  needed  information  on  the  readings  to  those  who  have 
not  access  to  public  libraries  or  time  to  consult  books  of  reference.  In 
this  way  every  thing  that  can  be  conceived  of  to  enable  people  to 
educate  themselves  is  done.  The  great  result  has  been  that  thousands 
of  people  have  been  led  to  educate  themselves.  Among  the  number — 
fifty  thousand  graduates^there  are  not  only  young  men  and  women  of 
eighteen,  but  those  of  all  ages  up  to  seventy  and  eighty.  All  these 
have  passed  through  the  Golden  Gate  during  August  of  each  year,  as 
a  token  of  their  having  finished  the  course  of  reading  and  taken  the 
certificates  and  seals  of  honor. 

Now,  we  desire  to  attempt  something  of  this  kind.  It  is  true, 
Chautauqua  is  Protestant,  but  the  Catholics,  with  all  their  magnificent 
conservatism,  have  not  hesitated  to  go  there  to  study  its  plans  and 
adopt  them  for  their  constituents.  Shall  we  not  be  as  ready  to  learn 
and  as  eager  to  apply  instruction  ? 

This  is  the  plea  I  make.  Let  us  adopt  the  Chautauqua  plan.  Its 
officials  have  volunteered  to  exjjunge  all  Christian  readings  for  Jewish 
readers;  the  one  book  on  Christianity  is  to  be  displaced  by  a  book  for 
Jewish  readers,  selected  from  the  great  store-house  of  Jewish  learning. 
In  addition  to  this,  special  courses  shall  be  arranged  for  those  who  wish 
to  })ursue  the  study  of  Jewish  history  and  literature.  This  depart- 
ment will  be  under  some  qualified  instructor,  a  Jew,  who  shall  outline 
the  readings.  Most  important,  a  course  of  study  for  Sabbath  School 
teachers  shall  be  arranged.  Also,  a  course  in  Hebrew  and  oilier 
branches,  as  the  work  may  grow. 

It  is  suggested  to  me  that  the  Jewish  people  should  not  be 
committed  to  any  one  system.  I  respond,  in  championing  Chautau- 
qua: Nothing  better  is  yet  known  to  me.  Wlion  something  better 
appears,  we  shall  be  found,  I  trust,  to  have  kept  ourselves  open- 
minded  and  open-hearted  enougli  to  eagerly  seize  upon  it.  In  the 
meantime,  I  have  taken  upon  myself,  in  tiie  City  of  Philadelphia,  to 
organize  a  circle.  A  formal  contract  has  been  entered  into  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  such  a  Departinont  of  Jewish  Studies  in  the  (/hautau. 
qua  System  of  Education. 

There  are  those  who  are  eager  for  something  ol  this  kind  in  every 
coramunity.     I  desire  those  circulars  to  be  freely  distributed,  that  we 


WHAT    ORGANIZED    FOIiCES    CAN    DO    FOR   .U'DAISM.  357 

may  place  the  subject  before  the  Jewish  people  at  large.  Lot  us  go 
forth  from  this  Congress  feeling  that  we  have  come  here  not  merely 
to  cry  out  against  the  evils  Israel  has  suffered  through  all  the  ages, 
and  declare  again  and  again  to  those  about  us  "  We  are  your 
brethren,"  but  to  prove  it  by  our  own  liberality.  Let  us  not  theorize 
simply  on  the  agreements  of  religious  people,  but  join  hands  in  reality 
for  the  organization  and  maintenance  of  educational  forces.  As  other 
religions  are  every-where  made  accessible  to  the  student  and  the  gen- 
eral reader — let  us  make  Judaism  accessible  to  all — remove  the  re- 
proach of  a  false  exclusiveness  which  is  upon  us.  Drawing  nearer  to- 
getlier,  we  will  accomplish  the  assured  result  that  as  Jews  and  Judaism 
become  really  known,  popular  errors  and  misapprehensions  will  fall 
awa)',  prejudice  will  receive  its  quietus,  and  Jew  and  Gentile  learn  in 
truth  that  all  men  are  brothers.  Let  us  say  practically  to  our  friends, 
"  Jews  we  are,  Christians  you  are,  yet  brothers  all  of  us  and  united  in 
this  grand  work  of  Education." 


358  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 


THE  SOCIAL  SETTLEMENT. 

By  prof.  CHAKLES  ZEUBLIN,  Uxivkksity  of  Chicago. 


Past  environraeut,  however  disagreeable  and  repulsive,  often  con- 
fers on  its  subject  a  willingness  to  remain  in  like  environment.  The 
inheritance  of  centuries  of  persecution  has  led  the  Jew  to  adopt  volun- 
tarily as  his  home  the  Ghetto,  into  which  he  was  so  cruelly  forced  by 
stronger  hands  in  ages  past.  Yet  the  adoption  is  not  wholly  voluntary. 
Segregation  has  become  a  law  of  life.  The  protection  which  associa- 
tion once  held  out  to  him  against  some  of  his  religious  persecutors  he 
needs  now  against  the  industrial  tyrants  even  in  this  land  of  refuge. 
Yet  in  his  ignorance  he  is  compelled  to  associate  with  the  weak,  and 
the  spirit  which  might  be  helpful  becomes  a  menace. 

The  problems  of  the  age  are  intensified  in  the  Chicago  Ghetto. 
There  we  find  the  great  race  question  :  rapid  multiplication  of  human 
beings  of  like  temperament,  habits,  religion,  language,  in  the  midst, 
and  yet  not  part  of,  another  nation  of  different  characteristics.  There 
is  the  religious  question  :  old  forms  preserved  whose  functions  have 
ceased,  and  whose  maintenance  hinders  progress.  There  is  also  the 
political  puzzle  of  the  Republic:  a  people  familiar  with  other  institu- 
tions exercising  the  right  of  suffrage  without  knowledge,  or  abstaining 
from  any  share  in  the  government  through  suspicions  formed  under 
despotism.  There,  too,  is  the  labor  problem  :  what  share  shall  the 
worker  have  in  his  product? — the  chief  question  of  the  age,  the  solu- 
tion of  which  shall  solve  all  other  problems.  The  Jew  of  the  Ghetto 
is  not  only  unskilled,  he  is  not  only  physically  weak,  he  ix  the  scapegoat 
of  commercialism.  The  sweater  claims  his  stunted  growth,  his  technical 
ignorance,  his  untiring  perseverance.  The  capitalist  i)uts  his  dirty 
work  on  the  Jewish  middleman.  The  latter  enslaves  his  fellows.  It 
is  not  enough  that  this  age  should  perpetuate  the  indignities  of  past 
ages — Jew  oppresses  Jew.  Many  into  wiiose  lukewarm  hearts  a  drop 
of  hnmanitarianism  has  filtered  from  the  liberal  pulpits,  refrain  from 
oppressing,  but  despise.  A  little  handful  of  the  faithful  show  broth- 
erly interest;  of  this  limited  number,  the  majority  manifest  sympathy 
by  proxy. 

What  is  to  be  done  to  make  the  Jew  of  the  slums  more  of  a  man. 


THE   SOCIAL   SETTLEMENT.  359 

less  of  an  oriental?  Four  things:  give  employment  to  the  industrious, 
decent  homes  to  the  deserving,  intellectual  opportunity  to  the  ambi- 
tious, a  social  ideal  to  every  one. 

First — Emjiloij  the  industriotis.  If  one  might  judge  by  tradition, 
this  would  mean  that  every  Jew  in  the  community  should  have  em- 
ployment. There  are  doubtless  examples  in  the  Ghetto  of  those  un- 
willing to  work  for  society  or  self.  It  might  even  be  asked  concern- 
ing these  unfortunates,  whether  intermittent  employment  and  the 
speculative  character  of  modern  industries  had  not  been  the  cause  of 
negligence  and  indiflerence.  But  the  vast  majority  of  the  indigent 
Jews  have  been  f)rced  to  the  wall  by  the  irresistible  power  of  laissez 
faire.  The  disgrace  is  society's,  and  the  first  element  of  reform  is  a 
provision  of  the  means  to  earn  a  livelihood. 

Second — Give  decent  homes  to  the  deserving.  One  of  the  greatest 
curses  of  the  Ghetto  is  the  lack  of  good  sanitation  and  the  ignorance 
of  hygienic  laws.  If  the  Mosaic  code,  designed  for  nomad  life,  could 
be  expanded  for  use  in  a  municipality,  the  religious  nature  of  the 
people  would  make  them  seek  healthful  surroundings.  It  is  a  com- 
monly quoted  fact  that  the  poor  of  the  slums  pay  as  much  or  more  per 
cubic  foot  for  their  contracted,  squalid  surroundings  as  the  rich  of  the 
avenues.  This  condition  appears  more  horrible  when  one  learns  that 
many  of  these  wretched  homes  are  owned  by  the  well-to-do  and  "re- 
spectable." The  most  persistent  efforts  of  philanthropists  can  not 
teach  people  to  observe  hygienic  laws  when  living  in  hovels.  A  safe 
and  helpful  investment  would  be  the  erection  of  blocks  of  model 
houses.  Wealthy  Jews  could  find  here  a  means  of  helping  their  fel- 
lows, which  might  perhaps  entail  more  personal  efibrt  than  giving  to 
the  charity  collectoi-,  but  which  would  repay  themselves  economically 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  houses  hygieuically  and  socially.  Blocks 
of  "  model"  tenements  would  not  meet  the  wants  of  the  community. 
The  deserving  do  not  usually  find  homes  there,  and  the  large  popuhi- 
tion  which  gathers  in  such  buildings  is  generally  in  a  worse  condition 
than  in  their  former  shanties.     The  district  needs  homes. 

Third — Give  intellectual  opportunity  to  the  ambitious.  No  class  of 
immigrants  has  as  high  intellectual  qualifications  as  the  Russian  Jew. 
No  class  uses  so  faithfully  the  opportunities  at  hand.  From  the  Tal- 
mud devotee  to  the  scientific  socialist,  the  development  of  the  mind  is 
a  common  ambitiou.  The  gatherings  in  the  synagogues,  the  attend- 
ance at  the  evening  classes  of  the  Jewish  Training  School,  the  member- 
ship in  the  various  clubs  of  Hull  House,  the  groups  in  the  Kosher 
restaurants,  the  agitation  meetings  of  the  socialists,  all  testify  to  this 
desire  for  knowledge.     A  larger  proportion  of  useful   citizens  will  be 


360  ORGANIZED    FORCES. 

found  amonff  the  voimo-  Russian  Jews  than  any  other  nationality,  if 
they  are  offered  the  needed  opportunities.  Herein  is  one  of  the  greatest 
demands  for  intelligent,  sympathetic  helpers  from  among  the  educated. 

Fourth — Give  a  social  ideal  to  every  one.  Already  many  inhabitants 
of  the  Ghetto  are  more  fortunate  than  their  better  situated  fellow 
Jews,  for  they  have  not  yet  accomniodated  themselves  to  the  false  eco- 
nomic divisions  of  our  "  civilization."  Unfortunately,  the  native 
American  Jew  often  accepts  the  evil  with  the  good  in  the  existing 
system.  He  even  multiplies  distinctions  by  adding  to  the  breach  be- 
tween capital  and  labor,  between  Sephardim  and  Ashkenazim,  another 
between  the  German  and  Russian  Jew.  Such  a  difference  can  be 
neither  Jewish  nor  American,  it  is  Philistine.  Among  a  nation  of 
priests  there  can  be  no  class  lines.  Wliat  the  resident  of  the  Ghetto 
has  to  forget  is  the  difference  between  Jew  and  Gentile.  No  social 
ideal  can  be  realized  without  this.  Business  integrity  is  impossible 
while  the  "brother"  and  the  "stranger"  receive  different  treatment. 
No  true  municipal  or  national  life  can  be  known  while  the  Jew  re- 
mains an  oriental  among  occidentals.  More  significant  still,  no  social 
regeneration  is  possible  while  Jewish  capitalist  and  Jewish  laborer  are 
opposed.  A  social  ideal  can  only  be  realized  by  affording  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Ghetto  a  chance  to  work,  to  have  a  home,  to  enjoy  intellec- 
tual development,  to  feel  himself  a  member  of  the  social  organism, 
with  its  privileges  and  duties.  No  existing  institution  or  effort  can 
furnish  these  opportunities.  If  they  are  possible  at  all,  it  will  be 
through  the  co-operation  of  all  existing  and  available  forces. 

Dr.  Stolz's  suggestion  of  the  need  of.  a  Jewish  Hull  House,  a 
social  settlement,  indicates  the  first  step  to  be  taken.  An  attractive 
house  located  in  the  midst  of  the  needy  district,  occupied  by  educated, 
devoted,  broad-minded  young  men  or  women,  or  both,  cati  prove  the 
nucleus  of  these  good  works.  It  can  become  the  center  of  social  life 
for  the  neighborhood.  Its  residents  can  make  themselves  the  friends 
of  the  community.  The  need  of  each  household  can  then  be  investi- 
gated by  friends  instead  of  strangers,  the  sanitary  evils  can  be  seen 
by  sympathizers  instead  of  jjcrfunctory  officials,  clubs  can  be  organ- 
ized among  the  young  and  old,  which  shall  j)romote  the  physical  and 
intellectual  life  of  all.  A  Socialist  Society  will  not  be  feared  when 
composed  of  friends  instead  of  unknown  or  unfavorably  known  agi- 
tators. Tlie  real  workers  for  the  welfare  of  the  district  will  be  recog- 
nized when  a  neighborly  feeling  has  removed  distrust.  An  employ- 
ment bureau,  a  co-operative  tailor  shop,  an  emigration  committee, 
even  such  common  enterprises  as  a  day-nursery  or  a  reading-room,  will 
be    foun<l    possessing   new  possibilities    when   conducted    by  friends. 


THE   SOCIAL   SETTLEMENT.  361 

Those  who  are  willing  to  make  investments  for  the  good  of  the  neigh- 
borhood will  find  the  way  made  easy  bj'  their  own  friends  in  the 
district. 

Is  the  idea  of  a  Jewish  social  settlement  Utopian?  Not  at  all. 
Two  young  men  have  already  signified  their  willingness  to  live  in  the 
Ghetto,  and  a  determined  group  of  friends  is  rallying  to  this  newest 
and  surest  way  to  help- one  of  the  most  needy  yet  hopeful  factors  in 
our  municipality. 


362  ORGANIZED   FORCES. 


RELIEF  SOCIETIES. 

By  MR.  HENRY  L.  FRANK. 


I  hardly  think  I  shall  realize  the  high  expectations  set  upon  my 
ability  to  enlighten  you  on  the  very  important  subject  of  relief  work. 
I  shall  not,  in  my  remarks,  dwell  so  much  upon  relief  work  in  general 
as  upon  its  relation  to  societies  of  other  communities.  In  this  con- 
nection there  is  one  vital  question  which  pushes  itself  to  the  foreground, 
namely,  the  Transportation  Question.  By  this  I  mean  the  journey- 
iugs  of  the  shiftless  and  their  transference  from  cue  place  to  another 
by  the  aid  of  local  relief  societies. 

The  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  this  city  sent  out  invitations  to 
a  number  of  Jewish  communities,  principally  of  the  larger  cities,  to 
discuss  this  important  subject  with  us,  aud  see  what  means  can  be  de- 
vised to  allay  the  evil.  Some  answered,  some  did  not  even  deign  to 
answer.  Last  evening  there  was  a  good  deal  said  about  religious  in- 
difference. Some  of  the  reverend  gentlemen  complained  about  this, 
and  justly  so.  But  not  only  in  the  sphere  of  religion  and  polit- 
ical and  social  matters  does  this  indifference  manifest  itself,  in  the 
domain  of  charity  also  it  exerts  its  baneful  influence.  Allowance 
might  be  made  for  the  disturbed  condition  of  business,  but  our  in- 
vitations were  sent  out  before  the  panic  had  convulsed  the  business 
world,  and  thus  we  can  ascribe  the  non-participation  in  a  charity  con- 
gress to  nothing  but  general  apathy. 

I  have  jotted  down  just  a  few  things  bearing  upon  the  subject 
of  organization  which,  it  seems  to  nic,  it  would  be  well  to  bear  in  mind. 
Without  co-operation  on  the  part  of  the  larger  communities  the  task  , 
of  checking  pauperism  is  well-nigh  hopeless.  In  order  to  trace  the 
latter,  to  learn  something  of  its  antecedents,  we  must  have  the  help 
of  other  relief  societies.  As  between  these  and  ourselves  it  means 
reciprocity  pure  and  sim])le.  Why  siiould  one  community  unload  its 
undesirable  dependents  uj)on  another?  And  why  should  thousands 
of  dollars  be  cxi)ended  for  railroad  fares  in  the  useless  endeavor  to  get 
rid  of  paupers?  Ordinary  safeguards  would  be  the  ascertainment  of 
places  of  residence  of  applicant,  the  assistance  rendered  him  by  any 
local  society,  and  length  of  sojourn.     Also  whether  the  applicant  can 


RELIEF    SOCIETIES.  363 

show  that  any  relative  or  friend  at  a  distant  place  have  promised  to 
aid  him  before  transportation  is  granted  iiimr  In  fact,  these  supposed 
friends  should  be  corresponded  with  before  any  steps  are  taken  to 
cliange  his  domicile.  I  claim  that  through  these  precautions  the  use- 
less expense  of  transportation  can  be  minimized.  I  have  gathered 
some  data  in  order  to  bring  more  forcibly  to  your  notice  what  this 
item  costs.  I  have  gone  back  to  the  year  1889 : 
From  1889  to  1890  the  United  Hebrew  Charities  of  this  city 
laid  out  for  transportation  (inclusive  of  some  resident 

poor  to  foreign  countries) $1,034  95 

From  1890tol891  1,013  40 

From  1891  to  1892  (108  transient  cases) 1,593  75 

(36  transients  received  in  cash,  $113.50.) 

Our  collections  in  the  first  two  years  cited  were  about  $14,000 
each  year ;  in  the  last  year  they  were  about  $20,000.  We  are  thus 
nearing  the  ten  per  cent  mark  of  total  contributions.  The  figures 
given  are  from  the  printed  reports  issued  annually.  I  could  have 
wished  a  little  more  clearness  in  these  (out  of  the  material  at  hand  I 
had  to  make  the  best).  By  resident  poor,  I  should  add,  we  mean  such 
as  have  been  living  here  six  racniths  or  over.  What  the  outlay  for 
transients  will  be  for  1892  to  1893  I  can  not  state.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that  from  obtainable  data  we  can  safely  assume  that  it  will  not  fall 
short  of  that  of  the  previous  year. 

Inasmuch  as  the  paupers  prey  upon  every  community  they  get 
into,  it  is  highly  necessary  that  a  national  organization  be  formed. 
Through  it  we  can  limit  indiscriminate  alms-giving.  Not  before  peo- 
ple are  made  to  understand  that  their  money  is  thrown  away  will 
these  indiscriminate  bestowals  cease.  Every  ten  or  twenty  cents  given 
to  the  undeserving  means  that  much  taken  from  the  deserving. 
Whilst  we  ought  not  help  swell  the  dividends  of  the  railroad  compa- 
nies, we  are,  in  justice  to  Chicago,  compelled  to  engage  in  the  ship- 
ment and  re-shipment  of  the  transients. 

I  have,  in  the  foregoing,  merely  outlined  the  essential  features 
and  benefits  of  organization.  Mav  I  ask  the  Rabbis  assembled  here 
to  agitate  the  subject  in  their  congregations  ?  I  feel  the  responsibility 
resting  upon  me,  a  layman,  in  attempting  to  exhort  Rabbis.  But 
these  are  strange  times,  and  I  hope  I  shall  be  forgiven. 


GENERAL. 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  MOTHER  OF  RELKJIOXS  ON  THE 

SOCIAL  QUESTION.* 

By  rabbi  H.  BERKOWITZ,  D.D.,  ok  Pjiii.aj)i:i.i>iiia. 


lu  this  assembly  of  so  niauy  of  her  spiritiuil  children,  in  the 
midst  of  the  religions  which  have  received  from  her  nurture  and  lov- 
ing care,  Judaism,  the  fond  mother  may  well  lift  up  her  voice  and  be 
heard  with  reverent  and  affectionate  attention.  It  has  been  asked  : 
"  What  has  Judaism  to  say  on  the  social  question  ?" 

From  earliest  days  she  has  set  the  seal  of  sanctity  on  all  that  that 
question  involves.  From  the  very  first  she  proclaimed  the  dignity, 
nay,  the  duty  of  labor  by  postulating  God,  the  Creator,  at  work  and 
setting  forth  the  divine  example  unto  all  men  for  imitation,  in  the 
command  :  "  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy  work."  Indus- 
try is  thus  hallowed  by  religion,  and  religion  in  turn  is  made  to  receive 
the  homage  of  industry  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  ordinance  of  Sabbath 
rest.  Judaism  thus  came  into  the  world  to  live  in  the  world,  to  make 
the  world  more  heavenly.  Though  aspiring  unto  the  heavens  she  has 
always  trod  firmly  upon  the  earth,  abiding  with  men  in  their  habita- 
tions, ennobling  their  toils,  dignifying  their  pleasures.  Throuo-h  all 
the  centuries  of  her  sorrowful  life,  she  has  steadfastly  striven  with  her 
every  energy  to  solve,  according  to  the  eternal  law  of  the  eternally 
righteous,  every  new  phase  of  the  ever-recurring  problems  in  the  social 
relationships  of  men. 

When  the  son  of  Adam,  hiding  in  the  dismal  covert  of  some  pri- 
meval forest,  heard  the  accusing  voice  of  conscience  in  bitter  tones 
upbraiding  him,  he  defiantly  made  reply:  "Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?"  then  the  social  conflict  began.  To  the  question  then  asked, 
Judaism  made  stern  reply  in  branding  with  the  guilt  mark  of  Cain 
every  transgression  of  human  right.  From  then  until  now,  unceas- 
ingly through  all  the  long  and  trying  centuries,  she  has  never  wearied 
in  lifting  up  her  voice  to  denounce  wrong  and  plead  for  right,  to  brand 
the  oppressor  and  uplift  the  oppressed.  Pages  upon  pages  of  her 
Scriptures,  folio  upon  folio  of  her  massive  literature,  are  devoted  to 
the  social  question  in  its  whole  broad  range  and  full  of  maxims,  pre- 
cepts, injunctions,  ordinances  and  laws  aiming  to  secure  the  right  ad- 
justment of  the  affairs  of  men  in  the  practical  concerns  of  every  day. 


■■■■  Should  have  been  placed  iu  section,  "  State  and  Society." 

(367) 


368  GENERAL. 

In  the  family,  iu  the  comiuunity,  iu  the  state,  in  all  the  forms  of 
social  organization,  inequalities  between  man  and  man  have  arisen 
which  have  evoked  the  contentious  of  the  strong  and  the  weak,  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  the  high  and  the  low.  Against  the  iniquity  of  self- 
seeking,  Judaism  has  ever  protested  most  loudly,  and  none  the  less  so 
against  the  errors  and  evils  of  an  unjust  self-sacrifice.  "Love  thy- 
self," she  says,  "  this  is  natural,  this  is  axiomatic,  but  remember  it  is 
never  of  itself  a  moral  injunction.  Egoism  as  an  exclusive  motive  is 
entirely  false,  but  altruism  is  not  therefore  exclusively  and  always 
right.  It  likewise  may  defeat  itself,  may  work  injury  and  lead  to 
crime.  The  worthy  should  never  be  sacrificed  for  the  unworthy.  It 
is  a  sin  for  you  to  give  your  hard  earned  money  to  a  vagabond  and 
thus  propagate  vice,  as  much  as  it  is  sinful  to  withhold  your  aid  from 
the  struggling  genius  whose  opportunity  may  yield  to  the  world  un- 
dreamed-of benefits." 

In  this  reciprocal  relation  between  the  responsibility  of  the  indi- 
vidual for  society,  and  of  society  for  the  individual,  lies  one  of  Juda- 
ism's prime  characteristics.  She  has  pointed  the  ideal  in  the  conflict 
of  social  principles  by  her  golden  precept,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself — I  am  God"  (Leviticus  xix,  18).  According  to 
this  precept  she  has  so  arranged  the  inner  afl^airs  of  the  family  that 
the  purity,  the  sweetness  and  tenderness  of  the  homes  of  her  children 
have  become  proverbial. 

"Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother"  (Ex.  xx,  12). 

"The  widow  and  the  orphan  thou  shalt  not  oppress"  (Ex. 
XX ii,  22). 

"  Before  the  hoary  head  shalt  tliou  rise  and  shalt  revere  the  Lord 
thy  God  "  (Lev.  xix,  32). 

"And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children"  (Deut. 
vi,  7). 

These,  and  hundreds  of  like  injunctions,  have  created  the  insti- 
tutions of  loving  and  tender  care  which  secure  the  training  and 
nurture,  the  education  and  rearing  of  the  child,  which  sustain  the 
man  and  the  woman  in  rectitude  in  the  path  of  life,  and  with  the 
staff  of  a  devout  faith  guide  their  downward  steps  in  old  age  to 
the  resting-place  "  over  which  the  star  of  immortality  sheds  its  radi- 
ant light." 

Judaism  sots  education  before  all  things  else  and  knows  but  one 
word  for  charit} — Zcdakali,  /.  e.,  Justice.  She  has  uiade  the  home  the 
basis  of  the  social  structure,  and  has  sought  to  supply  the  want  of  a 
home  as  a  just  due  to  every  creature,  guarding  each  with  this  motive, 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.     With  her  sublime  maxim,  "Love  thy 


THE    VOICE   OF   THE   MOTHER   OF    RELIGFOXS,   ETC.  369 

ijei<:hbor  as  thyself — I  am  God,"  Judaism  set  up  the  highest  ideal  of 
society  as  a  human  brotherhood  under  the  care  of  a  divine  Fatherhood. 
According  to  this  ideal  Judaism  has  sought,  passing  beyond  the  envi- 
ronments of  the  family,  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  human  society  at 
large.  "This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of  men" — was  the  cap- 
tion of  Genesis,  indicating  as  the  Rabbis  tauglit,  that  all  men,  with- 
out distinction  of  race,  caste  or  other  social  difference,  are  entitled  to 
.equal  rights  as  being  equally  the  children  of  one  Creator.  The  social 
ideal  was  accordingl}'^  the  sanctification  of  men  unto  the  noblest  in  the 
injunction  to  the  "  priest-people  :"  "  Holy  shall  ye  be,  fur  I,  the  Lord 
your  God,  am  holy"  (Ex.  xix,  22). 

The  freedom  of  the  individual  was  the  prime  necessary  conse- 
quence of  this  precept.  Grandly  and  majestically  the  Mosaic  legisla- 
tion swept  aside  all  the  fallacies  which  had  given  the  basis  to  the 
heartless  degradation  of  man  by  his  fellowman.  Slavery  stood  for- 
ever condemned  when  Israel  went  fortli  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt. 
Labor  then  for  the  first  time  asserted  its  freedom,  and  assumed  the 
dignity  which  at  last  the  present  era  is  vindicating  with  such  fervor 
and  power.  Judaism  established  the  freedom  to  select  one's  own  call- 
ing in  life  irrespective  of  birth  or  other  conditions.  For  each  one  a 
task  according  to  his  capacities  was  the  rule  of  life.  The  laborer  was 
never  so  honored  as  in  the  Hebrew  Commonwealth.  The  wage  system 
was  inaugurated  to  secure  to  each  one  the  fruits  of  his  toil.  It  was 
over  the  work  of  the  laboring  man  that  the  master  had  control,  not 
over  the  man.  Indeed  the  evils  of  the  wage  system  were  scrupulously 
guarded  against  in  that  the  employer  was  charged  by  the  law  as  by 
conscience  to  have  regard  for  the  physical,  moral  and  spiritual  well-be- 
ing of  his  employees  and  their  families. 

To  the  solution  of  all  the  problems,  which  under  the  varying  con- 
ditions of  the  different  lands  and  different  ages,  always  have  arisen  and 
always  will  arise  the  Jewish  legislation  in  its  inception  and  develop- 
ment affords  an  extraordinary  contribution.  It  has  studiously  avoided 
the  fallacies  of  the  extremists  of  both  the  communistic  and  individual- 
istic economic  doctrines.  Thus  it  was  taught:  He  that  saith,-"  What 
is  mine  is  thine,  and  what  is  thine  is  mine"  (communism),  he  is  void 
of  a  moral  concept.  He  that  saith,  "What  is  mine  is  mine  and  what 
is  thine  is  thine,"  he  has  the  wisdom  of  prudence.  But  some  of  the 
sages  declare  that  this  teaching  too  rigidly  held  oft  leads  to  barbarous 
cruelties.  He  that  saith,  "What  is  mine  is  thine  and  what  is  thine 
shall  remain  thine,"  he  has  the  wisdom  of  the  righttous.  He  that  says 
that,  "  What  is  mine  is  mine  and  what  is  thine  is  also  mine,"  he  is  ut- 
terly Godless.  (Pirke  Aboth,  v,  13.) 
21 


370  GENERAL. 

Judaism  has  calmly  met  the  wild  outbursts  of  extremists  of  the 
anti-poverty  nihilistic  types  with  the  simple  confession  of  the  fact 
which  is  a  resultant  of  the  imperfections  of  human  nature:  "The 
needy  will  not  be  wanting  in  the  land"  (Dent,  xv,  11).  The  broth- 
erly care  of  the  needy  is  the  common  solicitude  of  the  Jewish  legisla- 
tures and  people  in  every  age.  Their  neglect  or  abuse  evokes  the 
wrath  of  .prophet,  sage  and  councilor  with  such  a  fury  that  even  to- 
day none  but  the  morally  dead  can  withstand  their  eloquence.  The 
effort  of  all  legislation  and  instruction  was  directed  to  a  harmonization 
of  these  two  extremes. 

The  freedom  of  the  individual  was  recognized  as  involving  the 
development  of  unlike  capacities.  From  this  freedom  all  progress 
springs.  But  all  progress  must  be  made,  not  for  the  selfish  advantage 
of  the  individual  alone,  but  for  the  common  welfare,  "That  thy 
brother  with  thee  may  live"  (Lev.  xxv,  86).  Therefore,  private 
))roperty  in  land  or  other  possessions  was  regarded  as  only  a  trust,  be- 
cause every  thing  is  God's,  the  Father's,  to  be  acquired  by  industry 
and  perseverance  by  the  individual,  but  to  be  held  by  him  only  to  the 
advantage  of  all. 

To  this  end  were  established  all  the  laws  and  institutions  of  trade, 
of  industry,  and  of  the  system  of  inheritance,  the  code  of  rentals,  the 
jubilee  year  tliat  every  fiftieth  year  brought  back  the  laud  which  had 
been  sold  into  the  original  patriuiony,  the  seveuth  or  Sabbatical  year, 
in  which  the  lands  were  fallow,  all  produce  free  to  the  consumer,  the 
tithings  of  field  and  flock,  the  loans  to  the  brother  in  need  without 
usurv,  and  tlie  magnificent  system  of  obligatory  charities,  which  still 
hold  the  germ  of  the  wisdom  of  all  modern  scientific  charity.  "Let 
tlie  poor  glean  in  the  fields"  (Lev.  xix,  JO),  and  gather  through  his 
own  efforts  what  he  needs,  /.  e.,  give  to  each  one  not  support,  but  the 
opportunity  to  secure  his  own  support. 

A  careful  study  of  these  Mosaic-Talmudic  institutions  and  laws  is 
bound  more  and  more  to  be  recognized  as  of  untold  worth  to  the 
present  in  the  solution  of  the  social  question.  True,  these  codes  were 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  peculiar  people,  homogeneous  in  cluu-acter, 
livinw  under  certain  conditions  and  environments  which  probablv  do 
not  now  exist  in  exactly  the  same  order  anywhere.  We  can  not  use 
tlu;  statutes,  but  their  aim  and  spirit,  their  motive  and  method  we 
must  adoi>t  in  the  solution  of  the  social  problem  even  to-day.  Con- 
sider that  the  cry  of  woe  whirh  is  ringing  in  our  ears  now  was  never 
heard  in  Judca.  Note  that  in  all  the  annals  of  Jewisli  history  there 
are  no  records  of  tlie  revolts  of  slaves  such  as  those  wliich  afHicted  the 
world's  greatest  empire,  and  under  Spartacus  threatened  the  national 


THE    VOICE   OF   THE    MOTHER   OF    RELIGIONS,    ETC.  371 

safety,  nor  any  uprisings  like  tlv^se  of  the  Plebeians  of  Rome,  the 
Demoi  of  Athens,  or  the  Helots  of  Sparta  ;  no  wild  scenes  like  those 
of  the  Paris  Commune;  uo  procession  of  hungry  men,  women  and 
children  crying  for  bread,  like  those  of  London,  Chicago  and  Denver. 
Pauperism,  that  specter  of  our  country,  never  hauuted  the  ancient 
land  of  Judea.     Tramps  were  not  known  there. 

Because  the  worst  evils  which  afflict  the  social  bod}^  to-dav  were 
unknown  under  the  Jewish  legislation,  we  may  claim  that  we  have 
here  the  pattern  of  what  was  the  most  successful  social  sj'stem  that 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Therefore  does  Judaism  lift  up  her  voice 
and  call  back  her  spiritual  children,  that  in  her  bosom  they  mav  find 
comfort  and  rest.  "Come  back  to  the  cradle  of  the  world,  where 
wisdom  first  spake,"  she  cries,  "and  learu  again  the  message  of  truth 
that  f  >r  all  times  and  unto  all  generations  was  proclaimed  through 
Israel's  precept,  'Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,  for  I  am  God'"  (Lev. 
xix,  18). 

The  hotly  contested  social  questions  of  our  civilization  are  to  be 
settled  neither  according  to  the  ideas  of  the  capitalist  nor  those  of  the 
laborer  ;  neither  according  to  those  of  the  socialist,  the  communist,  the 
anarchist  or  the  nihilist;  but  simply  and  only  according  to  the  eternal 
laws  of  moralitv,  of  which  Sinai  is  the  loftiest  symbol.  The  suidius 
principles  of  all  true  social  economy  are  embodied  in  the  simple  lessons 
of  Judaism.  As  the  Avorld  has  been  redeemed  from  idolatry  and  its 
moral  corruption  by  the  vital  force  of  Jewish  ideas  so  can  it  likewise 
be  redeemed  from  social  debasement  and  chaos. 

Character  is  the  basic  precept  of  Judaism.  It  claims  as  the  mod- 
ern j)hiIosopher  declares  (Herbert  Spencer)  that  there  is  no  political 
alchemy  by  which  you  can  get  golden  con-duct  out  of  leaden  instincts. 
Whatever  the  social  system  it  will  fail,  unless  the  conscience  of  n)eu 
and  women  are  quick  to  heed  the  imperative  orders  of  duty  and  to  the 
obligations  and  responsibilities  of  power  and  ownership.  The  old 
truth  of  righteousness  so  emphatically  and  rigorously  insisted  on  from 
the  first  by  Judaism  must  be  the  new  truth  in  every  changing  phase  of 
economic  and  industrial  life.  Only  thus  can  the  social  questions  be 
solved.  In  her  insistence  on  this  doctrine  Judaism  retains  her  place 
in  the  van  of  the  religions  of  humanity. 

Let  the  voice  of  the  mother  of  religious  be  heard  in  the  parliament 
of  all  religions.  May  the  voice  of  the  mother  not  plead  in  vain.  May 
the  hearts  of  the  nations  be  touched,  and  all  the  unjust  and  cruel  re- 
strictions of  ages  be  removed  from  Israel  in  all  lands,  so  that  the 
emancipated  may  go  in  increasing  colonies  back  to  the  native  pursuits 
of  agriculture  and  the  industries  so  long  denied   them.     ^lay  the  colo- 


372  GENERAL. 

nies  of  the  United  States  of  America,  Argentine  and  Palestine  be  an 
earnest  to  the  world  of  the  purity  of  Israel's  motives;  may  the  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  schools  maintained  by  the  Alliance  Israelite 
Universelle,  the  Baron  de  Hirsch  Trust  and  the  various  Jewish  organ- 
izations of  the  civilized  world  from  Palestine  to  California,  prove  Israel's 
ardor  for  the  honors  of  industry ;  may  the  wisdom  of  her  schools,  the 
counsel  of  her  sages,  the  inspiration  of  her  lawgivers,  the  eloquence 
of  her  prophets,  the  rapture  of  her  psalmists,  the  earnestness  of  all 
her  advocates,  increasingly  win  the  reverent  attention  of  humanity  to, 
and  fix  them  unswervingly  upon,  the  everlasting  laws  of  righteousness 
which  she  has  set  as  the  only  basis  for  the  social  structure. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  THE  TALMUD.  .     373 


THE  GENIUS  OF  THE  TALMUD. 

By  REV.  DR.  ALEXANDER  KOHUT. 


The  Talmud  is  the  step-child  of  Literature.  Used,  misused, 
and  abused,  defamed  aud  reviled,  tortured  into  glittering  falsehoods 
and  tempered  Avith  deductive  rays  of  perverted  admiration,  undis- 
guised even  by  hatred,  it  has  outlived  the  tragic  auto-das-fe  of 
malice  and  tyranny,  and  looms  up  with  all  the  glamour  and  brilliance 
of  its  pristine  splendor  lo-day,  in  every  hamlet  and  metropolis  of  the 
universe — that  huge  ampitheater,  upon  whose  stage  the  uineteentli  cen- 
tury consumes  the  slowly  flickering  f)otlights  of  bigotry  burning 
around  tli£  unhallowed  bier  of  anti-Semitism. 

No  word  reverberates  more  sonorously  in  the  halls  of  science  and 
research,  no  echo  peals  forth  more  harmoniously  the  tell-tale  message 
of  humanity's  treasured  truths,  no  thunder  hurls  the  lightning  alarms 
of  conscience  and  righteousness,  of  equity  aud  brotherhood,  of  morality 
and  sanctity  with  more  blasting  force,  or  startles  into  godlier  life 
the  dormant  faculties  of  self,  than  the  silver  voice  of  sage  council  aud 
paternal  monition,  which  rings  out  in  clear  signal  tones  of  conviction 
and  command  from  the  watcli-tower  of  the  Talmud.  The  searchlight 
of  lofty  truth  beaming  in  benignant  glare  from  the  stately  peaks  of 
Rabbinic  lore  illumines  the  shadows  of  the  chosen  race  witli  glowing 
hues  of  immortality. 

But  habent  sua  fata  lihellil  Tiie  Talmud  never  fared  well  among 
strangers.  No  one  icithout  the  pale  of  Judaism  ever  undertook  to 
fathom  this  interminable  abyss  of  wisdom,  immeasurably  more  com- 
plex in  its  untarnished  ethical  simplicity  than  all  the  concentrated 
genius  of  antiquity.  When  men  like  Pfeflerkorn,  Wagenseil,  Rohling, 
Justus,  and  other  scandal-mongers,  dipped  their  venom-dripping  pens 
in  the  ire  of  fanatical  vagaries,  impulsed  by  vulgar  arrogance  aud 
bestial  deliglit  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  imaginary  foes,  they  took  care 
to  select  and  misinterpret  the  diverse  ambiloquies,  metaphors,  and  ob- 
scure allusions  to  heathenism  as  deliberate  examples  of  Hebrew  wis- 
dom, disdaining  to  specify  or  designate  them  as  mere  hyperbolical  il- 


374  GENERAL. 

lustratious  of  a  hidden  thought,  as  soulful  and  edifying,  perhaps,  as 
the  latent  suggestions  of  the  fabulist  deftlv  clad  in  flowers  of  allesiory. 
They  did  not  perceive  the  embellishment  of  myth  and  riddle,  the 
subtle  magic  of  genuine  delight,  such  as  Longfellow's  harp  tunes  to 
graceful  melody : 

"  It  is  but  a  legend,  I  know, — 
A  fable,  a  phantom,  a  show 

Of  the  ancient  Rabbinical  lore  ; 
Yet  the  old  medieval  tradition, 
The  beautiful,  strange  superstition. 

Rut  haunts  me  and  holds  me  tlie  more. 

When  I  look  from  my  window  at  night. 
And  the  welkin  above  is  all  white, 

All  throbbing  and  panting  with  stars, 
Among  them  majestic  is  standing 
Sandalphon,  the  angel,  expanding 

His  pinions  in  nebulous  bars. 

And  the  legend  I  feel  is  a  part 

Of  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  the  heart. 

The  frenzy  and  tire  of  the  brain. 
That  grasps  at  the  fruitage  forbidden 
The  golden  pomegranates  of  Eden 

To  quiet  its  fever  and  pain.^' 


Despite  the  poetic  portraiture  of  the  noted  Gentile  bard,  no  plausi- 
ble conception  of  this  gigantic  panorama  of  human  ingenuity,  so 
varied  and  gorgeous  in  its  component  hues,  can  be  formed  by  the  eager 
invader  of  this  Andalusia  of  wonders.  To  unbiased  minds  the  above 
would  seem  enticing  indeed,  if  shorn  of  all  gra])hic  license,  and  mod- 
estly arrayed  in  colors  of  cold  reality;  to  lynx-eyed  prejudice,  ever  on 
the  alert  to  fasten  a  peccadillo  of  bribed  conceit  upon  the  fair  name 
of  righteous  men,  the  rytlimic  vindication  of  brave  America's  Avell 
trained  lyrist,  sounds  like  overheated  enthusiasm  set  to  music  out  ot 
tune — too  gaudy  for  the  naked  guze  to  view. 

Perhaps  a  characterization,  which  we  have  in  mind,  free  from  the 
superlatives  of  exaggeration  and  unstrained  by  dry  as  dust  details, 
elsewhere  found,  would  not  fail  to  convince  the  niggardly  hesitator,  or 
attract  the  indifl'erent,  and  if  we  be  not  too  buoyant  of  hope — succeed 
in  engaging  the  attention  of  even  those  who  are  already  initiated  in 
the  intricacies  of  Rabbinic  dialectics. 

Well,  then,  what  is  the  Talmud? 

This  (piery  which    has   been  rai.sed    by  profound    scholarship  as 


THE   GENIUS   OF   THE   TALMUD.  375 

well  as  by  dilettaute  siiperficuility  ;  by  pbilo-Semite,  as  well,  as  by  anti- 
Semite  ;  by  an  eager  thirst  for  know  led  j^^e,  as  well  as  by  transient 
curiosity,  has  not  yet  been  answered,  at  least  in  so  far  as  it  concerns 
the  heart  of  the  problem — the  contents  of  this  manif  )l(l  encyclopedia 
of  consummate  utility,  the  production  of  which  spans  the  period  of  a 
thousand  years.  If  mild  desire  to  know  what  tl)is  mammoth  catalogue 
of  human  knowledge  comprises,  is  thus  irresistibly  whetted  by  the 
curious — by  whatever  impulse  instigated — we  can  not,  in  justice  to 
the  seekers  after  truth,  forego  the  attempt  to  calmly  elucidate  the 
harassing  enigma.  "  What  does  the  Talmud  not  contain  ?"  is  our  neg- 
ative rejoinder. 

It  is  a  world  in  miniature ;  a  spiritual  universe,  which  because  of 
its  universality  can  not  be  defined  in  narrow  limits.  Its  inexhaustible 
treasure-stores  can  barely  be  inventoried  by  means  of  words.  We  are 
here  confronted  with  a  state  of  things  contrary  to  that  which  Goethe 
had  in  mind  in  his  aphorism  :  "  Where  ideas  are  wanting,  words  come 
readily  to  relieve  the  want."  To  give  a  conception  of  the  Talmud,  of 
its  wealth  of  thought  and  ideas,  words  are  but  helpless  aids  and  use- 
less means.  Metaphor  might  more  readily  be  utilized,  though  even 
here  the  poet's  words  apply  : 

"  Yergleiche  nichts ! 
Willst  du  dera  Kiinstler  seinen  Werth  dir  ranben 
Dem  Werk  den  Glanz,  den  Sternen  ihren  Schein— 
Yergleiche  sie  !  dann  hast  du's  leicht  vollendet ! 
Yergleiche  Gott— du  hast  ihn  abgesetzt." 

Not  only  because  every  comparison  limps,  as  the  Latin  proverb 
has  it,  should  we  abstain  from  attempting  to  describe  the  Talmud  by 
means  of  metaphor,  nor  aside  from  the -fact  that  the  literature  of  the 
world  presents  nothing  which  in  any  degree  or  manner  can  be  used  for 
the  purpose,  but  because  every  simile  must  needs  lie  a  depreciation  of 
the  Talmud,  as  it  would  fail  to  give  any  just  conception  of  the  work 
in  its  totality.  And  yet  there  has  ever  been  a  predilection  for  speak- 
ing parabolically  of  the  Talmud  as  the  sea;  very  ancient  authors  desig- 
nating it  as  the  "sea  of  the  Talmud."  For  its  breadth  and  depth,  for 
the  numerous  objects  of  uncommon  f  ii'mation  to  be  discovered  in  its 
recesses,  and  also  for  the  dangers  it  abounds  in,  to  those  who  venture 
to  explore  it  without  an  accurate  compass,  it  has  truly  been  styled  the 
Talmudic  Ocean.  It  is  true  the  term  only  gives  but  one  phase  of  the 
object  defined;  but  at  least  that  phase  is  made  conceivable,  and 
through  this  medium  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  whole.     The 


376  GENERAL. 

sages  secured   tliis  phrase  from  the  scriptural  verse:   "Every  thing 
finite  has  a  visible  end,  but  Thy  coraraandnient  reaches  to  infinity."' 

To  him  who  never  beheld  the  sea,  the  idea  of  it  is  limited  to  the 
conception  of  an  inexhaustible  mass  of  water.  The  more  thoroughly 
versed,  however,  knows  much  more  than  this.  He  finds  that  the  sea 
has  a  topography  of  its  own;  its  various  currents;  and  that  in  the 
endless  flow  and  ebb  of  the  water  there  are  hugre  mountains,  orraud 
natural  formations,  and  images  of  the  animal,  vegetable  and  mineral 
Avorlds.  So,  too,  with  the  Talmud.  Its  wonderful  treasures  can  only 
be  discovered  by  means  of  the  most  industrious  and  conscientious 
special  research.  Externally  and  superficially  we  may  say  that  the 
Talmud  is  a  complex  work,  whose  typographical  composition  requires 
2,957f  folio  leaves,  and  that  its  twelve  volumes  contain  the  produc- 
tions of  2,208  authors.  This  rather  shallow  estimate  is  hardly  more 
explanatory  than  the  mention  of  the  fact,  that  a  great  mass  of  water  is 
of  certain  dimensions  in  length  and  depth.  Concerning  the  Talmud 
as  a  whole,  however,  it  is  difficult  to  go  further  than  this  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  the  amateur  student,  without  doing  injustice  by  oue- 
sideduess  or  weak  inefficiency. 

Tlie  contents  of  every  other  book,  even  of  the  Book  of  Books — 
Holy  Scri[)tures — can  be  readily  summarized.  Not  so  the  Talmud. 
A  summary  of  its  contents  would  require  a  detailed  reference  to  each 
page,  frequently  to  each  line,  would  seldom  be  continuous  in  its  rela- 
tionship between  page  and  page,  and  would  certainly  not  result  in  a 
systematic  view  of  the  contents  of  the  work.  Nor  would  any  other 
result  be  expected  if  we  consider  the  internal  organism  of  the  Talmud. 
Other  works  of  so  great  a  scope,  and  certainly  encyclopaedic  works, 
have  one  or  a  number  of  editors,  whose  occupation  it  is  to  classify  the 
matter  with  which  the  work  .is  to  be  concerned,  to  subdivide  into 
generic  groups,  and  arrange  the  individual  articles,  so  that  the  whole 
will  form  a  systematic  mass  who.se  single  parts  can  be  easily  referred 
to.  But  this  was  not  the  method  used  in  constructing  the  enormous 
intellectual  edifice,  who-se  completion  involved  ten  centuries  of  earnest 
thought  and  study — the  result  of  the  philosophizing,  dissertating,  teach- 
ing, preaching,  explaining  of  the  thinkers  and  poets  and  scholars  of 
various  grades  of  culture,  of  different  habits  of  thought  and  methods 
of  life,  and  all  inspired  with  the  purpose  to  keep  this  ebb  and  ffow  of 
thought  and  speech  alive  with  constant  animation,  and  not  to  petrify 
it  by  letter  worship. 

The  Talmud  is  a  museum  with  thousands  upon  thousands  of  rare, 
choice  and  precious  objects,  whose  values  are  not  to  be  estimated  by  the 
antiquarian  standard,  though  they  belong  to  such  a  remote  past,  but 


THE   GENIUS   OF   THE    TALMUD.  377 


may  be  permittel  to  iufliience  us  rlirectlv,  as  thev  have  the  thoiifrht 
and  feeling  of  all  Israel  throughout  its  modern  history. 

They  who  traverse  the  sea  of  the  Talmud  (to  refer  for  a  while  to 
our  earlier  image)  are  iu  so  far  like  the  travelers  of  the  sea  that  the 
company  is  composed  of  characters  with  various  habits  of  thought,  of 
different  stations  in  life,  and  of  diverse  grades  of  culture.  But  they 
vary  from  these  in  one  important  })ariicular,  in  that  insufferable  dull- 
ness, dreary,  stupid  conversation  and  frivolous  speech  are  banished 
from  the  Talmud.  It  is  true,  we  are  occasionally  regaled  with  witty 
anecdotes,  interesting  stories  and  satirical  sayings,  but  these  and  like 
humorous  episodes,  which  are  participated  in  by  some  even  grave  and 
earnest  authors  for  the  purpose  of  enlivening  the  otherwise  monotonous 
Halachic  discourses,  contain  none  the  less  an  ethical  n)otive  and  a 
moral  background,  seeking  either  to  impress  more  deeply  a  truth  ex- 
pounded, or  to  practically  illustrate  some  abstract  idea. 

Moreover,  such  digressions  and  diversions  occui'  only  in  the  Hag- 
gadic  portion  of  the  Talmud.  Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  work 
know  that  the  Talmud  may  be  subdivided  into  two  principal  parts, 
the  Halachic  and  the  Haggadic,  which,  like  two  powerful  streams, 
now  flow  iu  parallel  courses,  then  pursue  their  way  together,  and 
again  separate,  each  passing  its  own  path  through  the  vast  stretches  of 
biblical  exegesis  and  ideal  thought. 

Halacha  signifies  conduct,  conduct  of  life;  Haggada,  expression 
of  opinion.  Both  together  constitute  Midrash  :  research,  study.  The 
same  meaning  attaches  to  the  word  Talmud,  or  the  Chaldaic  form 
Gemara,  which  is  an  amplification  of,  and  commentary  upon,  the 
Mishna,  the  latter  again  bearing  the  same  relation  to  the  Law.  The 
titles  and  names  bestowed  upon  the  various  schools  of  Mishnic  pre- 
ceptors, as  Tanaim;  the  Talmudic  authors,  Amoraim,  and  the  later 
Sabiiraim,  are  convincing  evidences  that  the  aim  and  object  of  the  in- 
tellectual activity  was  learning,  teaching,  study,  I'esearch.  The  title, 
Halacha,  is  a  strong  indication  of  this.  The  deliberations  and  dis- 
cussions, ranging  over  every  phase  of  the  subject  considered,  as  soon 
as  they  culminated  in  the  establishment  of  a  principle,  with  the  force 
of  law,  should  lead  to  the  embodiment  of  the  principles  iu  operative 
rules  for  the  conduct  of  life  which  are  to  be  deduced  from  the  Haggada. 
In  this  sphere  the  widest  freedom  of  thought  was  exercised ;  here  un- 
restrained speech  held  sway. 

The  Halacha  begins  with  anxious  questioning  of  the  heroes  of 
tradition,  and  with  certain  established  and  well  defined  rules  of  inter- 
pretation seeks  to  examine  the  religio-legal  questions  present  for  its 
consideration  by  means  of  research,  now  subdividing,  analyzing,  again 


378  GENERAL. 

combining  and  comparing,  by  utilizing  every  logical  apparatus  to  place 
the  subject  in  a  clear  and  transparent  light.  The  Halacha,  freed  from 
the  heavy  bonds  of  method  and  rule  of  interpretation,  is  as  lightly 
feathered  as  thought,  and  as  free  and  various  in  its  phases  as  thought  is. 
Ranging  upward  through  the  intellectual  realm,  from  the  lowly  plains 
of  a  narrow-minded  provincialism,  it  towers  to  the  heights  of  lofty 
conception.  Beginning  from  the  lower  stage  of  fancy,  mainly  bor- 
rowed from  Parsism  concerning  Dtenionology,  or  the  Clialdaic  Astrol- 
ogy, it  ascends  to  the  most  profound  philosophical  distinctions.  Start- 
ing with  fables  and  weird  tales,  and  sloping  upward  to  the  farthest- 
reaching  cliffs  of  intellectual  conceptions  concerning  God  and  the  uni- 
verse, we  behold  the  thousand  artists  of  the  Haggada  observing  every 
thing  and  interested  in  all,  sometimes  stepping  down  to  the  level  of 
the  peo[)le,  and  again  lifting  them  up  to  their  own  moral  plane,  but 
always  appealing  to  their  conscience,  elevating,  consoling,  inspiring 
them  with  hopes  for  a  better  future. 

The  Halacha  offers  inexhaustible  nourishment  for  the  coldly  crit- 
ical understanding.  It  is  the  domain  of  logic  and  of  judgment.  The 
Haggada  nurtures  the  heart,  the  spirit,  the  fancy.  The  Halacha  oc- 
cupies itself  with  working  the  gold  bullion  of  the  Jewish  law  to  deco- 
rate the  soul.  The  Haggada  brings  into  circulation  the  small  coin  for 
the  needs  of  the  spirit.  The  mine  is  rich  and  inexhaustible,  and  the 
miners  are  indefatigable. 

God's  omnipotence,  omnipresence,  omniscience;  His  all-benefi- 
cence; the  revelation  of  Himself  in  nature  and  in  history,  particulnrly 
that  of  Israel;  His  relation  to  humankind,  and  the  relations  of  man 
to  God  ;  the  manner  and  method  of  utilizing  His  manifold  and  various 
powers,  faculties,  possibilities,  and  material  things;  the  conduct  of 
man  in  joy  and  sorrow  ;  the  nature  of  a  wise  and  pious  course  of  life; 
the  need  of  following  the  good  and  avoiding  tlie  bad  example;  the  re- 
ward for  the  ftjrmer  and  the  punishment  for  the  latter;  the  sanctity  of 
the  family;  the  sacredness  of  life;  the  many  and  various  degrees  of 
acts  of  virtue;  mikI  the  praiseworthiness  of  his  occupation  with  the 
study  of  the  law.  These  and  countless  other  details  of  knowledge 
and  subjects  of  reflection  were  drawn  from  the  vast  mine,  and  were 
worked  together  with  such  profundity  of  thought,  such  fulliiess  of 
sympathy,  and  in  such  beautiful  form,  such  power  of  convincing,  that 
even  if  we  viewed  it  from  the  cold,  anli(|uarian  stand-point,  we  would 
be  compelled  to  offer  Dur  tribute  of  admiration  and  reverence  to  the 
men  whom  we  know  as  the  sages  of  the  Talmud  and  ^lidrash. 

And  yet  not  all  is  sparkling  diamond,  glittering  gold,  or  shining 
pearl.     That  pebbles  and  dross  have  attached  themselves  to  the  precious 


THE   GENIUS   OF   THE   TALMUD,  379 

stones  and  metal  of  thouojlit,  is  so  uatiiial  that  it  needs  no  lono:  drawn 
explanation.  But  because  of  the  dross  to  ignore  tlie  gold  ;  because  of 
tlie  alien  element  to  disdain  the  priceless  gem,  even  to  cast  it  aside — 
that  would  be  injustice  and  stupidity,  and  as  we  ourselves  would  be 
the  greatest  losers,  a  most  j)itiful  spite  against  ourselves! 

Moreover,  these  insignificant  utterances  are  of  but  a  formal  na- 
ture, and  liai'dly  deserve  even  that,  if  we  cease  to  look  upon  them  in 
the  light  of  our  modern  culture,  and  measure  them  bv  the  standard  of 
mental  habits  of  speech  and  thought  and  feeling.  If  we  take  this 
point  of  view,  we  will  gladly  forgive  the  limited  culture  for  tlie  sake 
of  the  childlike  primitive  naivete;  forget  the  hyperbole  and  bombast 
in  the  vivid,  unrestrained  imagination  ;  overlook  the  stilted  flowery 
language  for  the  undeniable  poetry;  ignore  the  strange,  because  of  the 
fascinating  novelty ;  overcome  the  difficulties  of  expression  to  attain 
the  keenness  of  thought ;  pass  over  the  ambiguities  for  the  spiritual 
insight.  We  will  then  guard  ourselves  against  labeling  that  which 
seems  unintelligible  to  us  as  meaningless,  branding  it  wdth  the  stigma 
of  abomination,  and  declaring  it  to  be  dangerous  to  society.  We 
must  rather  strive  to  circulate  the  current  beauties  of  legendary  and 
expository  sentiment,  which  vie  in  exquisiteness  of  diction  with  the 
comical  pathos  of  Heine's  inimitable  strains,  wafting  the  fragrant  per- 
fume of  the  Talmud — flowers  from  his  enchanted  garden — the  con- 
servatory of  "  Komancero :" 

"  Beautiful  old  stories, 
Tales  of  angels,  fairy  fables, 
Stilly  histories  ol  martyrs, 
Festal  songs  and  words  of  wisdom  ; 
Hyperboles,  most  quaint  it  may  be. 
Yet  replete  with  strength  and  tire, 
And  faith — how  they  gleam. 
And  glow  and  glitter!     .     .     ." 

We  should  endeavor  to  popularize  the  strange  subtleties  of  Rab- 
binic allegory,  narrated  so  quaintly  in  their  chi'onicles  of  saga  and 
gnomic  wisdom,  to  infuse  its  edifying  councils  and  incomparable  ethical 
gleanings*  in  the  hearts  of  reticent  humanity,  that  the  latent  spirit 
which  dwells  therein  may  be  released  from  the  shell  of  false  obscurity 
and  challenge  the  criticism  of  the  most  obstinate  and  impassioned 
analysis. 

But  it  is  not  now  my  j)urpose  to  idealize  the  Haggadic  jiortion  of 
the  Talmud,  which,  I  would  repeat,  never  arrogated  to  itself  operative 
force  as  legislation.     I  admit  even  that,  as  the  sea-shore  gathers,  be- 


380  GENERAL. 

sides  the  pearl  shells,  foam  f(n-mations  and  a  complexity  of  stoues  that 
are  worthless,  so  there  are  many  Haggadic  utterances  valueless  for  our 
times.  Of  this  nature  are  some  aphorisms,  fables,  and  hyperbolical 
sayings,  which  perhaps,  even  in  the  time  when  they  were  fresh  of  ut- 
terance were  considered  eccentric,  but  for  us  have  no  more  even  the 
value  of  humor.  We  can  only  regret  that  the  professional  wisdom  of 
the  anti-Jewish  guild  of  the  caliber  of  Eisenmenger,  Rohling,  and 
others  of  that  ilk,  should  choose  just  these  incomprehensible  passages, 
wliose  obscurity  they  confound  still  worse  with  their  crass  ignorance, 
and  send  them  forth  as  specimens  of  Talmudical  judgment.  Honney 
soit  qui  vial  y  pense ! 

But  there  is  one  portion  of  the  Haggada  which  these  sol  disant 
scholars  cut  out  by  preference  and  serve  up  in  distasteful  ragout  as 
solid,  healthy  food,  for  those  who,  at  every  meal,  would  devour  a 
Jew.  This  section  comprises  the  vital  passage  which  should  de- 
monstrate the  intolerance  of  the  Talmud  toward  non-Jews,  and  con- 
cerning which  they  who  deal  in  human  hate  know  so  well  how  to  jug- 
gle with.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the  Talmud  is  a  mirror 
which  reflects  the  image  of  him  who  looks  tlierein.  The  ugly,  wicked 
face  beholds  in  the  shining  surface  of  unbribed  fidelity,  his  own 
hideous  deformities  and  homely  visage  faithfully  portrayed.  The 
mirror  of  the  Talmud  reflects  also,  among  other  things,  the  heathen 
world,  the  follies  of  the  heathen  who  scorn  God,  morals  and  right- 
eousness; the  now  f)rmed  outgrowths  of  their  fantasy,  above  all  their 
nature-woi'ship,  their  beastial  idolatry.  These  served  for  many  reproofs, 
and  deserved  the  scourging  administered  by  the  sages  of  a  people  who 
were  to  be  dominated  by  ]uire  ethical  and  moiiotheistical  ideas. 

The  Hagfjada-Midm^hic  denunciations  of  lieathenism,  aiming  to 
secure  respect  for  God  and  man,  and  therefore  bitter  and  merciless 
in  its  expressions  of  disapprobntion,  may,  for  our  part,  be  termed  in- 
tolerant. But  it  must,  at  the  same  time,  be  called  to  mind  that  such 
invectives  may  l)o  found  on  every  hand  in  the  Xew  Testament  and  in 
the  writings  of  the  Church  Fathers.  And  skepticism,  that  mollified 
outgrowth  of  pampered  heathenism,  so  much  in  vogue  among  libcral- 
ists  of  the  nineteenth  century,  was  not  then  universal.  No  Thomas 
Paine,  the  model  of  independent,  aggressive  freedom,  and  no  Inger- 
soll,  of  infidel  elo(juence,  were  heard  shooting  their  inflated  torpedoes 
of  rhetorical  extravagance  heavenward  in  a  confusing  medlev  of  i^cmi- 
barbaric  unbelief.  The  heathens  of  aniiqultij  bowed  in  homage  before 
the  shrine  of  molded  g<)ds,  and  our  petted  pagans  of  advanced  cul- 
ture, worship  the  idols  ;uid  deities  of  power.  Had  they  been  born 
under   the   summer   skies  of    Oriental  strictures,    they    would   have 


THE  GENIUS  OF  THE  TALMUD.  381 

shouted  forth  their  folly  to  mute  and  impassable  listeners  under  the 
ban  of  ex-con:nninicati()u. 

The  Haggada  denounces  the  barbarity  of  the  heathen;  while  the 
Patristic  writers  direct  their  fulminations  against  the  mother  religions- 
Israel. 

The  reproof,  however,  of  heathen  practices,  rebuke  based  on 
judgment  of  the  quality  and  character  of  conduct  can  not  rightfully 
be  termed  intolerance.  But  to  insinuate  that  these  Talmudical  utter- 
ances are  leveled  against  CUiristianity  is,  let  us  emphasize,  the  top- 
most summit  of  bigotry  and  moral  profligacy  which  modern  pro- 
fessional sagacity  has  yet  attained  in  the  persons  of  those  humane 
drivelers  in  science  and  theology,  who  seek  to  cover  their  intellectual 
nakedness  with  the  moldy  fig-leaves  of  Eiseumenger.  What  gross 
ignorance  it  requires  to  interpret  D  15^  familiarly  known  as  an  ab- 
breviation of  ni/ItDT  D*DD13  ^'IDI^*  as  a  polemical  reproach  to  the 
elder  daughter  of  the  Mosaic  faith,  and  with  obstinate  effrontery  to 
persist  in  such  interpretation  after  its  fallacy  has  been  exposed. 

This  is  all  the  more  aggravating  because  it  has  long  been  the 
custom  in  the  re-publications  of  the  Talmud  to  expressly  disavow  any 
such  intentions,  either  in  the  preface  or  on  the  backs  of  the  title  page. 
This  zealous  desire  to  fasten  a  false  interpretation  upon  Jewish  thought, 
is  an  anomaly,  a  historical  anachronism,  because,  in  the  schools  of 
Babylon,  hardly  any  knowledge  was  had  of  young  Christianity,  which 
was  then  but  sprouting.  Tliis  is  explicitly  intimated  of  Neharden,  the 
central  part  of  Talmudical  learning,  pv^D  N*D*^1  kN*;*l"injD  (Pe- 
sachim  56a). 

In  Palestine,  however,  where  Christianity  was  known,  it  was  very 
far  from  being  ridiculed.  The  luorthy  founders  of  the  new  religion 
were  treated  with  a  large-minded  tolerance,  which  the  daughter  has 
never  shown  to  the  mother.  Let  us  gather  some  sentences  from 
the  writings  edited  in  the  Holy  Laud,  in  order  to  demonstrate  more 
conclusively,  that  as  concerns  sufferance  and  high-minded  humanity  a 
brilliant  light  streams  forth  for  guidance — luminous  even  to-day — 
from  those  despised  Sources  of  Hebraic  morality. 

Thus  the  Tosifta  says:  "The  righteous  among  the  people  have  a 
share  in  the  future  life,"  and  this  has  been  codified  by  Mainu'mi.  Hil- 
lel,  a  generation  before  Jesus,  taught,  that  the  essence  of  all  tlie  six 
hundred  and  thirteen  laws  is  coutaiued  in  the  sentence  of  Holy  AVrit: 
Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  that  is  original  text,  all  else  only  com- 
mentary thereon.  "There  is,  however,"  says  ben  Azai,  "a  Scriptural 
passage  which  teaches  an  even  greater  moral  truth,  and  it  is  Genesis 
V,  1 :   "  This  is  the  history  of  the  creation  of  man.     In  the  day  that 


382  GENERAL. 

God  created  mau,  He  created  him  in  the  likeness  of  God."  The  ex- 
pression, "Love  thy  neighbor,"  may,  by  a  strict  interpretation,  be 
construed  as  restricted  in  sense  to  those  near  to  us  by  ties  of  blood  and 
friendship.  This  is  not  possible,  hovvev^er,  with  the  term  QIJ^  which 
unquestionably  refers  to  all  men,  and  places  upon  us  the  obligation  to 
love  all  those  who  are  "created  in  the  likeness  of  God."  Thus  ben 
Azai  finds  in  the  verse  a  higher  grade  of  humanitarianism.  And 
Rabbi  Meir  dwells  upon  the  word  "man"  in  the  Scriptural  sense: 
"  Which  commands,  wdien  they  are  observed  by  man,  insures  him  eter- 
nal life;  "  as  showing  clearly  that  not  simply  the  Hebrew  or  the  Levite, 
but  every  man  can  secure  eternal  bliss  by  the  exercise  of  practical 
virtues. 

A  Palestinian  authority  teaches:  "It  is  a  far  greater  crime  to 
rob  a  non-Jew  than  an  Israelite,  because  it  is  a  greater  sacrilege  com- 
mitted against  God's  name."  And  the  mucldy  scorned  and  little  un- 
derstood Talmud  teaches  explicitly :  "  It  is  forbidden  to  take  advan- 
tage of  a  non-Jew,  even  in  thought."  In  another  instance  it  is 
remarked,  that  "in  thirty-six,  or  according  to  another  calculation, 
forty-eight,  prohibitions  is  the  deception  of  non-Jews  in  deed  or  word, 
condemned." 

"To  further  the  peaceful  intercourse  between  Jews  and  non- 
Jews,"  says  the  humane  Talmud,  "  a  provision  should  be  made  for  the 
alien  poor,  the  same  as  for  the  Jewish  poor,  and  their  dead  should  be 
buried."  The  Tosifta  adds:  "  MeuKn'ial  services  should  beheld  in 
honor  of  deserving  non-Jews."  It  is  proper  and  praiseworthy  to  lend 
every  moral  support  to  non-Jews  on  appropriate  occasions.  From  the 
use  of  C*'{^  in  Leviticus  xxii,  18,  the  Talmud  concludes  that  it  is 
permitted  to  receive  sacrifice  for  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  from  every 
one,  hence  also  from  non-Jews. 

"It  is  written,"  says  the  Mid  rash  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  hate  thy 
brother  in  thine  heart,  as  the  all-holy  forgives  the  sins  of  man  without 
reservation  and  without  any  motive  of  evil  or  purpose  of  revenge,  so 
do  thou  !  "  "  Do  not  even  in  your  heart  store  evil  thoughts  against  any 
one."  "  Furthermore,  even  as  God  deems  every  pious  man  His  friend 
and  confidant,  so  you  must  construe  the  expression  'thy  brother' as 
meaning  the  pious  of  the  world,  therefore  also  those  of  the  non-Jewish 
world,  who  sincerely  carry  out  God's  will."  Another  Midrash  adds: 
"  We  must  gratefully  acknowledge  the  results  of  scientific  research, 
even  of  non-Jews."  "Strangers,  who  reside  not  in  Palestine,  must 
not  l)e  considered  as  heathens,  and  therefore  their  religious  belief  and 
worship  must  be  resi)ected." 

It  is  not  within  the  limit  of  the  space  allotted  to  us  to  point  out 


THE    GEXIUS    OF    THE    TALMUD.  383 

the  rigid  coiKlemnation  of  all  dishonest  transactions,  such  as  lisurv,  il- 
legal sale  or  barter,  inndequate  measures,  and  many  oilier  minor  par- 
ticulars to  wliich  the  Rabbis  of  sterling  honor  devoted  so  much  time 
to  define,  with  an  exactitude  whicii  rivals  the  specialties  outlined  in 
any  modern  criminal  code.  Nor  is  it  practicable  on  this  occasion, 
though  we  confess  no  more  auspicious  opportunity  will  again  recur, 
wherein  the  demonstration  of  Talmudic  legislation,  in  all  its  overtow- 
ering  supremacy,  would  be  received  with  more  enthusiasm,  to  enter 
into  the  rainutite  of  Hebrew  jurisprudence,  elsewliere  elaborated  ;  we 
will  content  ourselves  for  the  present  with  citing  the  tribute  rendered 
by  the  ablest  jurist  of  our  times,  Professor  Ed.  Gans,  wdio  was  not  at 
sea  in  the  overwhelming  flood  of  Talmudic  idiom,  and  needed  no  com- 
pass for  guidance.  "  No  corpus  juris  known  to  him,"  said  he,  "gives 
evidence  of  so  much  critical  labor  and  so  much  penetration  as  the 
Talmudical  law  on  inheritance  and  succession.  The  procedure  in 
criminal  cases  prescribed  in  the  Talmud  is  marked  with  the  stamp  of 
humanity  in  the  slightest  instance,  and  deserves  tlie  distinguished 
homage  of  all  enlightened  courts  of  justice." 

We  must  likewise  bridge  over  other  branches  of  versatile  stream, 
without  even  a  glance  at  the  picturesque  cataract  below.  Natural 
science,  geology,  mineralogy,  btjtany,  zoology,  biology,  physiology, 
psychology,  physiognomy,  agriculture,  horticulture,  embryologv,  med- 
icine, surgery,  dentistry,  bacterioh)gy,  all  manner  of  trade,  the  most 
advanced  grades  of  modern  science,  such  as  astronomy,  electricity, 
caligraphy,  and  stenography,  of  art,  literature,  and  education,  music, 
philosophy,  and  etiquette,  mathematics,  nun)ismatics,  and  pliilology, 
and  countless  other  boastful  accomplishments  of  our  proud  epoch,  are 
all  incorporated  in  this  indispensable  compendium  of  universal  knowl- 
edge. 

We  will  forego  the  satisfaction  of  collating  the  numerous  terse 
aphorisms  contained  in  the  Talmud,  to  which  parallels  could  be  cited 
from  Goethe,  Schiller,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  and  other  champions  of 
original  thought,  and  refrain  from  excepting  the  beautiful  ethical  say- 
ings— three  thousand  of  which  we  have  prepared  for  publication — 
moral  maxims  for  conduct  which  eclipse  in  loity  idealism  the  most  se- 
lect passages  from  Socrates,  Seneca,  Marc.  Aurelius,  Epictetus — eulo- 
gistic references  to  the  dignity  of  woman,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
low  estimate  other  nationalities  held  of  her  station  ;  kindly,  nay,  com- 
plimentary allusions  to  aliens,  whom  they  always  counseled  to  regard 
with  fraternal  amity,  will  have  to  be  omitted  in  our  brief  resume. 
Quotations  which  should  illustrate  that  the  Rabbis  of  yore,  contrary 


384  GENERAL. 

to  anti-Semitic  taunts,  frsquently  hurled  in  our  face,  were  doughty 
foes  of  superstition,  and  chronicled  mystic  symbols  and  magic  formulae 
as  curious  reminiscences  from  their  relations  with  Chaldea  and  Parsism, 
as  I  have  time  and  again  argued,  we  can  not  now  adduce.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  that  those  who  would  arrogate  to  themselves  the  authority  of 
claiming  to  have  discovered  purely  Cabbalistic  elements  in  the  Tal- 
mudic  treasury  of  immaculate  theory,  only  practice  their  own  Abra- 
cadabras of  fancy  and  folly.  Here  our  necessarily  brief  survey  must 
end.  We  are  conscious  of  the  fact  that  our  bird's-eye  view  is  essen- 
tially faulty  and  incomplete,  compressed  within  the  limit  of  a  half- 
hour's  lecture.  Yet  we  can  not  help  but  acknowledge  that  much  has 
been  gleaned  which  is  useful  and  edifying,  in  proportion  to  what  has 
been  unwittingly  omitted  from  the  entertaining  forget-me-nots  of  Hag- 
gadic  Atncy  and  folklore,  that  odoriferous  garden  of  stalwart  lilies 
which  blooms  iu  a  fertile  soil  impregnated  with  the  sedate  learning 
and  earnest  research  of  historic  Israel.  Perchance,  this  hasty  side 
glance  at  the  culture  and  attainments  of  our  world-wise  sages — all 
imbued  with  the  fear  of  God  and  the  love  of  man — will  lielp  toward 
allaying  the  thirst  of  the  few  for  enlightenment,  and  dissipating  the 
cancerous  prejudice  gnawing  at  the  better  imjjulses  of  that  vaster  herd 
called  humanity. 

If  we  have  succeeded  in  overcoming  the  innate  scruples  of  the 
wavering  bigots,  who,  possessed  by  the  erroneous  idea  (culled  chiefly 
from  calumnies  of  Jew  haters)  that  the  Talmud  is  a  store-house  of 
fetid  superstition,  where  "corruption  is  virtue  and  every  aim  is  vice," 
and  ]iroving  that  magic  tliere  is  iu  the  Talmud  in  so  far  as  its  at- 
tractive and  cohesive  power  is  concerned — that  the  magnetic  needle 
which  gravitates  with  tlie  elasticity  of  buoyant  inspiration  and  the 
diviner  hope  to  spur  our  people  on,  is  the  only  charmer's  rod  wielded 
by  the  Rabbis  in  every  age  and  every  clime,  where  scions  of  a  once 
multitudinous  but  now  sporadically  scattered  race  abide,  then  we  can 
triumi)hantly  exclaim,  with  Darwin's  royal  judgment,  "The  fittest 
survive." 

It  is  owing  to  the  hoary  Talmud,  that  ponderous  volume  of  an- 
cient lore,  and  ever  modern  love,  to  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  that 
old  curiosity  shop,  always  open,  even  on  the  Sabbath,  that  Israel  has 
no  CJhetto — ho  spiritual  fetters  to  weigh  the  soul  immortal  down — as 
Schleiden  once  tersely  maintained. 

To  the  Talmud,  the  associate-shepherd  of  our  holier  Writ,  the 
people  of  the  Book  were  at  all  times  faithful,  so  as  to  the  God  com- 
missioned  agent   to  adjust  Israel's   weal   or  woe   in   this  universe  of 


THE   GEXIUS    OF   THE   TALMUD.  385 

strife.  And,  although  luibent  sua  fata  libelll  runs  the  legend  of  its 
life,  it  has  a  brighter,  cheerier  destiny  in  the  domicile  of  Israel's  de- 
votion, by  the  fireside  of  Judea's  glowing  hearth,  and  in  the  grati- 
tude of  a  scholar-natif)n's  breast  who  lived  eternally  sa/i.s  peiir  et  sans 
reproache. 
25 


386  GENERAL. 


ELEMENTS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION. 

By  dr.  EMIL  G.  HIRSCH,  of  Chicago. 


The  dominion  of  religion  is  co-extensive  with  the  confines  of  hu- 
manity. Religion  is  one  of  the  natural  functions  of  the  human  soul; 
it  is  one  of  the  natural  conditions  of  human,  as  distinct  from  mere 
animal  life.  Man  alone  in  the  wide  sweep  of  creation  builds  altars. 
And  wherever  man  may  tent,  there  also  will  curve  upward  the  burn- 
ing incense  of  his  sacrifice  or  the  sweeter  savor  of  his  aspirations  after 
the  better,  the  diviner  light.  A  man  without  religion  is  not  normal. 
Tliere  may  be  those  in  whom  this  function  approaches  atrophy.  But 
they  are  undeveloped  or  crippled  specimens  of  the  completer  type.  A 
society  without  religion  has  nowhere  yet  been  discovered.  Religion 
may  then  in  very  truth  be  said  to  be  the  universal  distinction  of  man. 

Still,  the  universal  religion  has  not  as  yet  been  evolved  in  the 
procession  of  the  suns.  It  is  one  of  the  blessings  yet  to  come.  There 
are  now  even  known  to  men  and  revered  by  them  great  religious  svs- 
tems  which  pretend  to  universality.  And  wlio  would  deny  that  Budd- 
hism, Christianity,  and  the  faith  of  Islam  present  many  of  the  charac- 
teristic elements  of  the  universal  faith  ?  In  its  ideas  and  ideals,  the 
religion  of  the  prophets,  notably  as  eidarged  by  those  of  the  Baby- 
lonian exile,  also  deserves  to  be  numbered  among  the  proclamations 
of  a  wider  outlook  and  a  higher  uplook.  These  systems  are  no  longer 
ethnic.  Tiiey  have  advanced  far  on  the  road  leading  to  the  ideal 
goal;  and  modern  man  in  his  quest  for  the  elements  of  the  still 
broader  universal  faith  will  never  again  retrace  his  steps  to  go  back 
to  the  mile-posts  these  have  left  behind  on  their  climb  up  the  heights. 
The  three  great  religions  have  omanci]iated  themselves  from  the  bond- 
age of  racial  tests  and  national  divisions.  Race  and  nationality  can 
not  circumscribe  the  fellowship  of  the  larger  communion  of  the  faith- 
ful, a  communion  destined  to  embrace  in  one  covenant  all  the  chil- 
dren of  in:\n. 

The  d:iy  of  national  religions  is  past.  The  God  of  the  universe 
speaks  to  :dl  mankind.  Ho  is  not  the  God  of  Israel  alone,  not  tliat 
of  M(»al),  of  Egypt,  Greece,  or  America.  He  is  not  domiciled  in 
Palestine.     The  Joidaii  and  the  Ganges,  the  Tiber  and   the  Euphrates 


ELEMENTS   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION.  387 

hold  water  wherewith  the  devout  may  be  baptized  uuto  liis  service 
and  redemption.  "  Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit?  AVhither  flee 
from  (hy  presence?"  exclaims  the  old  Hebrew  bard. 

The  church  universal  must  have  the  pentecostal  gift  of  the  many 
flaming  tongues  in  it,  as  the  rabbis  say  was  the  case  at  Sinai.  God's 
revelation  must  be  sounded  in  every  language  to  every  land.  But, 
and  this  is  essential  as  marking  a  new  advance,  the  universal  religion 
for  all  the  children  of  Adam  will  not  palisade  its  courts  by  the 
pointed  and  forbidding  stakes  of  a  creed.  Creeds  in  time  to  come 
will  be  recognized  to  be,  indeed,  cruel,  barbed-wire  fences  woundiuo- 
those  that  would  stray  to  broader  pastures  and  hurting  others  who 
would' come  in.  AViil  it  for  this  be  a  godless  church?  Ah,  no;  it 
will  have  much  more  of  God  than  the  churches  and  synagogues  with 
their  dogmatic  definitions  now  possess.  Coming  man  will  not  be  ready 
to  resign  the  crown  of  his  glory  which  is  his  by  virtue  of  his  feeling 
himself  to  be  the  son  of  God.  He  will  not  exchange  the  church's 
creed  for  that  still  more  presumptuous  and  deadening  one  of  material- 
ism which  would  ask  his  acceptance  of  the  hopeless  perversion  that 
the  world,  which  sweeps  by  us  in  such  sublime  harmony  and  order,  is 
not  cosmos,  but  chaos — is  the  fortuitous  outcome  of  the  cliance  play  of 
atoms  producing  consciousness  by  the  interaction  of  their  own  un- 
consciousness. Man  will  not  extinguish  the  light  of  his  own  higher 
life  by  shutting  his  eyes  to  the  telling  indications  of  purpose  in  his- 
tory, a  purpose  which,  when  revealed  to  him  in  the  outcome  of  his 
own  career,  he  may  well  find  reflected  also  in  the  interrelated  life  of 
nature.  But  for  all  this  man  will  learn  a  new  modesty  now  woefully 
lacking  to  so  many  who  honestly  deem  themselves  religious.  His  God 
will  not  be  a  figment,  cold  and  distant,  of  metaphysics,  nor  a  dis- 
torted caricature  of  embittered  theology.  "  Can  man  by  searching 
find  out  God?"  asks  the  old  Hebrew  poet.  And  the  ages  so  flooded 
with  religious  strife  are  vocal  with  the  stinging  rebuke  to  all  creed- 
builders  that  man  can  not.  JNIan  grows  unto  the  knowledge  of  God, 
but  not  to  him  is  vouchsafed  that  fullness  of  knowledge  which 
would  warrant  his  arrogance  to  hold  that  his  blurred  vision  is  the 
full  light. 

Says  Maimonides,  greatest  thinker  of  the  many  Jewish  philoso- 
phers of  the  middle  ages:  "  Of  God  we  may  merely  assert  that  ho 
is ;  what  he  is  in  himself,  we  can  not  know.  *  My  thoughts  are  not 
your  thoughts,  and  my  ways  are  not  your  ways.'"  This  prophetic 
caution  will  resound  in  clear  notes  in  the  ears  of  all  who  will  worship 
in  the  days  to  come  at  tlie  universal  shrine.  Thoy  will  cease  their 
futile  efforts  to  give  a  definition   of  him  who  can   not  be  defined   in 


I 


388  GENERAL. 

human  synibols.  The  religion  universal  will  not  presume  to  regulate 
God's  government  of  this  world  by  circumscribing  the  sphere  of  his 
possible  salvation,  and  declaring,  as  though  he  had  taken  us  into  his 
counsel,  whom  he  must  save  and  whom  he  may  not  save.  The  uni- 
versal religion  will  once  more  make  the  God  idea  a  vital  principle  of 
human  life.  It  will  teach  men  to  find  him  in  their  own  heart  and 
to  have  him  with  them  in  whatever  they  may  do.  No  mortal  has 
seen  God's  face,  but  he  who  opens  his  heart  to  the  message  will,  like 
Moses  on  the  lonely  rock,  behold  him  pass  and  hear  the  solemn 
proclamation. 

It  is  not  in  the  storm  of  fanaticism  nor  in  the  fire  of  prejudice, 
but  in  the  still,  small  voice  of  conscience  that  God  speaks  and  is  to  he 
found.  He  believes  in  God  who  lives  a  Godlike,  i.  e.,  a  goodly  life. 
!Not  he  that  mumbles  his  credo,  but  he  who  lives  it,  is  accented. 
Were  those  maiked  for  glory  by  the  great  teacher  of  Nazareth  who 
wore  the  largest  phylacteries?  Is  the  sermon  on  the  mount  a  creed? 
Was  the  decalogue  a  creed?  Character  and  conduct,  not  creed, 
will  be  the  key-note  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Church  of  Humanity  Uni- 
versal. 

But  what  then  about  sin?  Sin  as  a  theological  imputation  will, 
perhaps,  drop  out  of  the  vocabulary  of  this  larger  communion  of  the 
righteous.  But  as  a  weakness  to  be  overcome,  an  imperfection  to  be 
laid  aside,  man  will  be  as  potently  reminded  of  his  natural  shortcom- 
ings as  he  is  now  of  that  of  his  first  progenitor  over  whose  conduct  he 
certainly  had  no  control  and  for  whose  misdeed  he  should  not  be  held 
accountable.  Religion  will  then  as  now  lift  man  above  his  weak- 
nesses by  reminding  him  of  his  responsibilities.  The  goal  before  us  is 
Paradise. 

This  religion  will,  indeed,  be  for  man  to  lead  him  to  God.  Its 
sacramental  word  will  be  duty.  Labor  is  not  the  curse,  but  the  bless- 
ing of  human  life.  For  as  man  was  made  in  the  image  of  the  Creator, 
it  is  his  to  create.  Earth  was  given  him  for  his  habitation.  He 
changed  it  from  chaos  into  his  home.  A  theology  and  a  monotheism, 
which  will  not  leave  room  in  this  world  for  man's  free  activity  and 
dooms  him  to  passive  inactivity,  will  not  harmonize  with  the  truer 
recognition  tiiat  man  and  God  are  the  co-relates  of  a  working  plan  of 
life.  Sympathy  and  resignation  are,  indeed,  beautiful  flowers  grown 
iu  the  garden  of  many  a  tender  and  nMl)le  human  heart.  ])Ut  it  is 
active  love  and  energy  which  alone  can  push  on  the  chariot  of  human 
l)rogress,  and  progress  is  the  gradual  realization  of  the  divine  sjiirit 
wliich  is  incarnate  in  every  human  being.  Tiiis  ])rinciple  will  assign 
to  religion  once  more  the  place  of  honor  among  the  redeeming  agencies 


ELEMENTS   OF    UNIVERSAL    RELIGION.  389 

of  society  from  the  bodage  of  selfishness.     On  this  basis  every  man  is 
€very  other  man's  brother,  uot  merely  in  misery,  bnt  in  active  work. 

"i^syou  have  done  to  the  least  of  these,  you  have  done  unto 
nie,"  will  be  the  guiding  principle  of  human  conduct  in  all  ihe  rela- 
tions into  which  human  life  enters.  No  longer  shall  we  hear  Cain's 
enormous  excuse,  a  scathing  accusation  of  himself,  "Am  I  my 
brother's  keeper?"  no  longer  will  be  tolerated  or  condoned  the  double 
standard  of  morality,  one  for  Sunday  and  the  church  and  another 
diametrically  opposed  for  week-days  and  the  counting-room.  Xot  as 
now  will  be  heard  the  cynic  insistence  that  "  business  is  business," 
and  has  as  business  no  connection  with  the  decalogue  oi-  the  sermon 
on  the  mount.  Religion  will,  as  it  did  in  Jesus,  penetrate  into  all 
the  I'elations  of  human  society.  Not  then  will  men  be  rated  as  so 
many  hands  to  be  bought  at  the  lowest  possible  price,  in  accordance 
with  a  defined  law  of  supply  and  demand,  which  can  not  stop  to  con- 
sider such  sentimentalities  as  the  fact  that  these  hand*;  stand  for  soul 
and  hearts. 

An  invidious  distinction  obtains  now  between  secular  and  sacred. 
It  will  be  wiped  away.  Every  thought  and  every  deed  of  man  must 
be  holy  or  it  is  unworthy  of  men.  Did  Jesus  merely  regard  the  temple 
as  holy  ?  Did  Buddha  merely  have  religion  on  one  or  two  hours  of 
the  Sabbath?  Did  not  an  earlier  prophet  deride  and  condemn  all 
ritual  religion  ?  "  Wash  ye,  make  ye  clean."  Was  this  not  the  bur- 
den of  Isaiah's  religion?  The  religion  universal  will  be  true  to  these, 
its  forerunners. 

But  what  about  death  and  hereafter?  This  religion  will  not  dim 
the  hope  which  has  been  man's  since  the  first  day  of  his  stay  on 
earth.  But  it  will  be  most  empliatic  in  winning  men  to  the  conviction 
that  a  life  worthily  spent  here  on  earth  is  the  best,  is  the  only  prepara- 
tion fi)r  heaven.  Said  the  old  rabbis:  "One  hour  spent  here  in  truly 
good  works  and  in  the  true  intimacy  with  God  is  more  precious  than 
all  life  to  be."  The  egotism  which  now  mars  so  often  the  aspirations 
of  our  souls,  the  scramble  for  glory  which  comes  while  we  forget  duty, 
will  be  replaced  by  a  serene  trust  in  the  eternal  justice  of  him  "  in 
whom  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being."  To  have  done  relig- 
iously will  be  a  reward  sweeter  than  which  none  can  be  t)fiered.  Yea, 
the  religion  of  the  future  will  be  impatient  of  men  who  claim  that 
they  have  the  right  to  be  saved,  while  they  are  perfectly  content  that 
others  shall  not  be  saveil,  and  while  not  stirring  a  foot  or  lifting  a  hand 
to  redeem  brother  men  from  hunger  and  wretchedne.«s,  in  the  cool  as- 
surance that  this  life  is  destined  or  doomed  to  be  a  free  race  of  hag- 


390  GENERAL. 

gliug,  snarliug  competitors,  iu  which,  by  some  mysterious  will  of  provi- 
deuce,  the  devil  takes  the  hindmost. 

Will  there  be  prayer  in  the  universal  religion  ?  Man  will  worship, 
but  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  his  prayer  will  be  the  prelude  to  his 
prayerful  action.  Silence  is  more  reverential  and  worshipful  than  a 
wild  torrent  of  words  breathing  forth  not  adoration,  but  greedy  re- 
quests for  favors  to  self.  Can  an  unforgiving  heart  pray  "  forgive  as 
Ave  forgive?"  Can  one  ask  for  daily  bread  when  he  refuses  to  break 
his  bread  with  the  hungry?  Did  not  the  prayer  of  the  great  Master 
of  Nazareth  thus  teach  all  men  and  all  ages  tliat  prayer  must  be  the 
stirring  to  love? 

Had  not  that  little  waif  caught  the  inspiration  of  our  universal 
prayer  who,  when  first  taught  its  sublime  phrases,  persisted  in  chang- 
ing the  opening  words  to  "Your  father  which  is  iu  heaven?"  Re- 
buked time  and  again  by  the  teacher,  he  finally  broke  out:  "  Well,  if 
it  is  our  father,  why,  I  am  your  brother."  Yea,  the  gates  of  prayer 
in  the  church  to  rise  will  lead  to  the  recognition  of  the  universal 
brotherhood  of  men. 

Will  this  new  faith  have  its  bible?  It  will.  It  retains  the  old 
bibles  of  mankind,  but  gives  them  a  new  luster  by  remembering  that 
"the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life."  Religion  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  literature,  but  of  life.  God's  revelation  is  continuous,  not 
contained  in  tablets  of  stone  or  sacred  parchment.  He  speaks  to-day 
yet  to  those  that  would  hear  him.  A  book  is  inspired  when  it  inspires. 
Religion  made  the  Bible,  not  the  book  religion. 

And  what  will  be  the  name  of  this  church?  It  will  be  known 
not  by  its  founders,  but  by  its  fruits.  God  replies  to  him  who  insists 
upon  knowing  his  name:  "I  am  he  who  I  am."  So  it  will  be  with 
the  church.  If  any  name  it  will  have,  it  will  be  "the  Church  of 
God,"  because  it  will  be  the  church  of  man. 

When  Jacob,  so  runs  an  old  rabbinical  legend,  weary  and  foot- 
sore the  first  night  of  his  sojourn  away  from  home,  would  lay  him 
down  to  sleep  under  the  canopy  of  the  star-set  skies,  all  the  stones  of 
the  field  exclaimed:  "Take  me  for  thy  pillow."  And  because  all 
were  ready  to  serve  him,  all  were  miraculously  turned  into  one  stone. 
This  became  Betii  El,  the  gale  of  heaven.  So  will  all  religions,  be- 
cause eager  to  become  the  pillow  of  man,  dreaming  of  God  and  be- 
holding the  ladder  joining  earth  to  heaven,  be  transformed  into  one 
great  rock  which  the  ages  can  not  move,  a  foundation-stone  for  the 
all-embracing  temple  of  humanity,  united  to  do  God's  will  with  one 
accord. 


JEWISH   CONTRIBUTIONS   TO    CIVILIZATION.  391 


JEWISH  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  CIVILIZATION. 

By  prof.  D.  G.  LYON. 


In  this  glad  Columbian  year,  when  all  the  world  is  rejoicing  with 
us,  and  in  this  ball,  consecrated  to  the  greatest  idea  of  the  century,  I 
could  perform  no  task  more  welcome  than  that  to  which  I  have  been 
assigned,  the  task  of  paying  a  tribute  based  on  history.  I  shall  use  the 
word  "  Jew  "  not  in  the  religious  but  in  the  ethnic  sense.  In  so  doing 
the  antithesis  to  Jew  is  not  Christian,  but  non-Jew  or  Gentile.  The  po- 
sition of  the  Jews  in  the  world  is  peculiar.  They  may  be  English- 
men, German,  American,  and,  as  such,  loyal  to  the  land  of  their  birth. 
They  may  or  may  not  continue  to  adhere  to  a  certain  phase  of  religion. 
But  they  can  not  avoid  being  known  as  the  scattered  fragments 
of  a  nation.  Most  of  them  are  as  distinctly  marked  by  mental  traits 
and  by  physiognomy  as  is  a  typical  Englishman,  German,  or  China- 
man. 

The  Jew,  as  thus  described,  is  in  our  midst  an  American,  and  has 
all  reasons  to  be  glad  as  one  belonging  to  the  community  at  large,  but  his 
unique  position  to-day  and  his  importance  in  history  justify  the  inquiry, 
whether  he  may  not  have  special  reasons  for  rejoicing  in  this  auspicious 
year. 

I.  Such  ground  for  rejoicing  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  the  discovery 
and  settlement  of  America  was  the  work  of  faith.  Columbus  believed 
in  the  existence  and  attainableuess  of  that  which  neither  he  nor  his 
fellows  had  ever  seen.  Apart  from  his  own  character  and  his  aims 
in  the  voyage  of  discovery,  it  was  this  belief  that  saved  him  from 
discouragement  and  held  his  bark  true  to  its  western  course.  What 
though  he  found  something  greater  than  he  sought,  it  was  his  belief 
in  the  smaller  that  made  the  greater  discovery  possible. 

What  is  true  of  the  discovery  is  true  of  the  settlement  of  America. 
This  t(^o  was  an  act  of  faith.  The  colonists  of  Chesapeake  and  Mas- 
sachusetts Bays  left  the  comforts  of  the  Old  World,  braved  the  dan- 
gers of  sea,  and  cold  and  savage  populations,  because  they  believed  in 
something  which  could  be  felt,  though  not  .seen,  the  guidance  of  a 
hand  which  directs  the  destiny  of  individuals  and  of  empires. 

Now  the  Jews,  as  a  people,  stand  in  a  j)re-eminent  degree  for  faith. 


392  GENERAL. 

They  must  be  judged  not  by  those  of  their  number  who  in  our  day 
give  themselves  over  to  a  life  of  materialism,  but  by  their  best  repre- 
sentatives and  by  the  general  current  of  their  liistory.  At  the  fountain 
of  their  being  they  place  a  man  whose  name  is  the  synonym  of  faith. 
Abraham,  the  first  Jew,  nurtured  in  the  comforts  and  refinements  of 
a  civilization  whose  grandeur  is  just  beginning  to  find  due  appre- 
ciation, hears  an  inward,  compelling  voice,  bidding  him  forsake  the 
land  of  his  fathers  and  go  forth,  he  knows  not  whither,  to  lay  in  the 
distant  West  the  foundations  of  the  empire  of  faith.  The  hopes 
of  the  entire  subsequent  world  encamped  in  the  tent  of  the  wan-, 
derer  from  Ur  of  Chald^ea.  Tiie  migration  was  a  splendid  ad- 
venture, prophetic  of  the  great  development  of  it  which  was  the  be- 
ginning. 

What  was  it  but  the  audacity  of  faith  which  in  later  times  enabled 
an  Isaiah  to  defy  the  most  powerful  army  in  the  world,  aud  Jeremiah 
to  be  firm  to  his\iouvictions  in  the  midst  of  a  city  full  of  enemies? 
What  but  faith  could  have  held  together  the  exiles  in  Babylon  and 
could  have  inspired  them  once  more  to  exchange  this  home  of  ease 
aud  luxury  for  the  hardships  and  uncertainties  of  their  devastated 
Palestinian  hills?  It  was  faith  that  nerved  the  arm  of  the  Maccabees 
for  their  heroic  struggle,  and  the  sublimity  of  faith  when  the  daunt- 
less daughter  of  Zion  defied  the  power  of  Rome.  The  brute  force  of 
Rome  won  the  day,  but  the  Jews,  dispersed  throughout  the  world, 
have  still  been  true  to  the  foundation  principle  of  their  history.  They 
believe  that  God  has  spoken  to  the  fathers  aud  that  He  has  not  for- 
saken the  children,  and  through  that  belief  they  endure. 

II.  A  second  ground  for  Jewish  rejoicing  to-day  is  that  America 
in  its  development  is  realizing  Jewish  dreams. 

A  bolder  dreamer  than  the  Hebrew  prophet  the  world  has  not 
known.  He  reveled  in  glowing  pictures  of  home  and  i)rosperity  and 
brotherhood  in  the  good  times  which  were  yet  to  be.  The  strength  of 
his  wing  as  poet  is  seen  in  his  ability  to  take  these  flights  at  times 
when  all  outward  appearances  were  a  denial  of  his  hopes.  It  was  not 
the  j)rosperous  state  whose  continuance  he  foresaw,  but  the  decaying 
state,  destined  to  be  shattered,  then  buried,  then  rebuilt,  to  continue 
forever.  It  was  not  external  power,  but  external  power  in  alliauce 
with  inward  goodness,  whose  description  called  forth  his  higliest  genius. 
His  dream,  it  is  true,  had  its  temporal  and  its  local  coloring.  His  com- 
ing state,  built  on  righteousness,  was  to  bo  a  kingdom,  because  this 
was  the  form  of  government  with  which  he  was  familiar.  The  seat  of 
this  empire  was  to  be  Jerusalem,  and  his  patriot  heart  could  have 
made  no  other  choice.     We  are  now  learning  to  distinguish  the  essen- 


JEWISH   CONTRIBUTIONS   TO   CIVILIZATION.  393 

tial  ideas  of  a  writer  from  tlie  phraseology  in  wliicli  ihcy  fiiul  expres- 
sioD,  A  Jewish  empire  does  not  exist,  and  Jerusalem  is  not  the  mis- 
tress of  the  world.  And  yet  the  dream  of  the  prophet  is  true.  A 
home  for  the  oppressed  has  been  found,  a  home  wiiere  prosperity  and 
brotherhood  dwell  togetiier.  Substitute  America  for  Jerusalem  and  a 
republic  for  a  kingdom,  and  the  correctness  of  the  prophet's  dream  is 
realized.     Let  us  examine  the  details  of  the  picture. 

1.  The  prophet  foresees  a  honie.  In  this  he  is  true  to  one  of  the 
marked  traits  of  his  people.  Who  has  sung  more  sweetly  than  the 
Hebrew  poet  of  home,  where  every  man  shall  "sit  under  his  vine 
and  under  his  fig-tree,  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid  ;  "  where  the 
father  of  a  large  family  is  like  the  fortunate  hunter  whose  quiver  is 
full  of  arrows;  where  the  children  are  likened  to  olive  plants  around 
the  father's  table,  and  where  a  cardinal  virtue  of  childhood  is  honor 
to  father  and  mother?  And  where  shall  one  look  to-day  for  finer 
types  of  domestic  felicity  than  may  be  found  in  Jewish  homes?  Or, 
taking  the  word  home  in  its  larger  sense,  where  shall  one  surpass  the 
splendid  patriotism  of  the  Hebrew  poet  exile: 

"  If  I  foryet  thee,  0  Jerusak'm, 
Let  my  riglit  baud  forget  her  cunning. 
Let  mv  tongue  cleave  to  tlie  roof  of  ray  iiioutli, 
If  I  remember  thee  not ; 
If  I  prefer  not  Jerusalem, 
Above  my  chief  joy." 

Yet  notwithstanding  this  love  of  a  local  habitation  the  Jew  has 
been  for  many  cruel  centuries  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  nations  have  raged,  the  kings  of  the  earth  have  set  themselves 
and  the  rulers  have  taken  counsel  together,  and  the  standing  miracle 
of  history  is  that  the  Jew  has  not  been  ground  to  powder  as  between 
the  upper  and  the  nether  niillstone. 

But  these  hardships  are  now,  let  us  hope,  near  their  end.  This 
young  republic  has  welcomed  the  Jew  who  has  fled  the  oppression  of 
the  Old  World.  Its  constitution  declares  the  equality  of  men,  and 
experience  demonstrates  our  power  to  assimilate  all  comers  who  desire 
to  be  one  with  us.  Here  thought  and  its  expression  are  free.  Here 
is  the  restful  haven  which  realizes  the  prophet's  dream.  Not  the  Jew 
only,  but  all  the  oppressed  of  earth  may  here  find  welcome  and  home. 
The  inspiring  example  of  Columbia's  portals,  always  open  to  the 
world,  is  destined  to  alleviate  the  ills  am:l  check  the  crimes  of  man 
against  man  throughout  all  lands.  And  what  though  here  and  there 
a  hard  and  unphilauthropic  soul  would  bolt  Columbia's  doors  and  re- 


394  GENERAL. 

call  her  invitation  or  check  her  free  iuterconise  with  nations?  Tliis  is 
but  tlie  eddy  in  lier  course,  and  to  heed  tliese  harsli  advices  she  must 
be  as  false  to  her  own  past  as  to  her  splendid  ideal.  Geary  exclusion 
acts  and  some  of  the  current  doctrines  of  protective  tariff  are  as  un- 
American  as  they  are  inliuman. 

2.;  But  the  Jewish  dream  was  no  less  of  prosperity  than  of  liome. 
America  realizes  this  feature  of  the  dream  to  an  extent  never  seen  be- 
fore. Where  should  one  seek  for  a  parallel  to  her  inexhaustible  re- 
sources and  her  phenomenal  material  development?  And  no  element 
of  the  community  has  understood  better  than  the  Jewish  to  reap  tlie 
harvests  wliich  are  ever  tempting  the  sickles  of  industry.  Jewish 
names  are  numerous  and  potent  in  the  exchanges  and  in  all  great  com- 
mercial enterprises.  The  spirit  that  schooled  itself  by  hnrd  contact 
with  Judpeau  hills,  that  has  been  held  in  check  by  adversity  for  twen- 
ty-five centuries,  shows  in  this  free  land  the  elasticity  of  the  uncaged 
eagle.  Not  only  trade,  but  all  other  avenues  of  advance,  are  here 
open  to  men  of  endowments,  of  whatsoever  race  and  clime.  In  jour- 
nalism, in  education,  in  philanthropy,  the  Jews  will  average  as  well  as 
the  Gentiles,  perhaps  better,  while  maiiy  individual  Jews  have  risen 
to  an  euviable  eminence. 

3.  A  third  feature  in   the  Jewish  dream,  an  era  of  brotherhood 
and  good  feeling,  is  attainiug  here  a  beautiful  realization. 

Nowhere  have  we  finer  illustrations  of  this  than  in  the  attitude 
toward  the  Jews  of  the  great  seats  of  learning.  The  oldest  and  largest 
American  university  employs  its  instructors  without  applying  any  tests 
of  race  or  religion.  In  its  faculty  Jews  are  always  found.  To  its  lib- 
eral feast  of  learning  there  is  a  constant  and  increasing  resort  of  am- 
bitious Jewish  youth.  Harvard,  is,  of  course,  not  peculiar  in  this 
regard.  There  are  other  seats  of  learning  where  wisdom  invites  as 
warmly  to  her  banquet  halls,  and  notably  the  great  Chicago  Uni- 
versity. The  spectacle  at  Harvard  is,  however,  specially  gratifying, 
because  there  seems  to  be  pi-ophetically  embodied  in  her  seal,  "  Christo 
et  Ecdesice,"  an  anknowledgment  of  her  obligations  to  the  Jew,  and  a 
dedication  of  her  powers  to  a  Jewish  carpenter  and  to  a  Jewish 
institution. 

4.  The  era  of  brotherhood  is  als )  seen  in  the  cooperation  of  Jew 
and  Gentile  to  further  good  causes.  To  refer  again,  by  permission,  to 
Harvard  University,  one  of  its  unique  and  most  significant  collections 
is  a  Semitic  Museum,  fostered  by  many  friends,  but  chiefly  by  a  Jew. 
And  it  is  a  jileasure  to  aild  here  that  one  of  the  groat  departments  of 
the  library  of  Chicago  University  has  been  adopted  by  the  Jews.  Al- 
thousrh  taxed    to   the   utmost   to  care  foi-  theii-  destitute  brethren  who 


JEWISH    CONTRIBUTIONS   TO    CI VIl.I/.ATION.  395 

seek  our  shores  to  escape  Old  World  persecutions,  the  Jews  are  still 
ever  ready  to  join  others  in  good  works  for  tlie  relief  of  human  need. 
If  Baron  Hirsch's  colossal  benefactions  distiibuted  in  America  are  re- 
stricted to  Jews,  it  is  because  tliis  phihinthropist  sees  in  these  unfor- 
tunate refugees  the  most  needy  sul^jects  of  benefaction. 

5.  But  most  significent  of  ail  is  the  fact  that  we  are  beginning  to 
understand  one  another  in  a  religious  sense.  When  Jewish  rabbis  are 
invited  to  deliver  religious  lectures  at  great  universities,  and  when  Jew- 
ish congregations  welcome  Columbian  addresses  from  Christian  minis- 
ters,  we  seem  to  have  made  a  long  step  toward  acquaintance  with  one 
another.  The  discussion  now  going  on  among  Jews  regarding  the 
adoption  of  Sunday  as  the  day  of  public  worship,  and  the  Jewish 
recognition  of  the  greatness  of  Jesus,  which  finds  expression  in  syna- 
gogue addresses — such  things  are  prophecies  whose  significance  the 
thoughtful  hearer  will  not  fail  to  perceive. 

Now  what  is  the  result  of  this  close  union,  of  which  I  have  in- 
stanced a  few  examples,  in  learning,  in  pliilanthropy,  and  in  affairs 
religious?  Is  it  not  the  removal  of  mutual  misunderstandings?  So 
long  as  Judaism  and  American  Christianity  stand  aloof,  each  will  con- 
tinue to  ascribe  to  the  other  the  vices  of  its  most  unworthy  representa- 
tives. But  when  they  meet  and  learn  to  know  one  another,  they  find 
a  great  common  standing-ground.  Judging  each  by  its  best,  each  can 
have  for  the  other  only  respect  and  good  will. 

The  one  great  exception  to  the  tenor  of  these  remarks  is  in  mat- 
ters social.  There  does  not  exist  that  free  intercourse  between  Jews 
and  nou-Jews  which  one  might  reasonably  expect.  One  of  the  causes 
is  religious  prejudice  on  both  sides,  but  the  chief  cause  is  the  evil 
already  mentioned,  of  estimating  Jews  and  non-JcAvs  by  the  least 
worthy  members  of  the  two  classes.  The  Jew  who  is  forced  to  sur- 
render all  his  goods  and  flee  from  Russian  oppression,  or  who  purchases 
the  right  to  remain  in  the  Czar's  empire  by  a  sacrifice  of  his  faith,  can 
hardly  be  blamed  if  he  sees  only  the  bad  in  those  who  call  themselves 
Christians.  If  one  of  these  refugees  prospers  in  America  and  carries 
himself  in  a  lordl\'  manner,  and  makes  himself  distasteful  even  to  the 
cultivated  among  his  co-religionists,  can  it  be  wondered  at  that  others 
transfer  his  bad  manners  to  other  Jews?  But  let  Jew  and  nonJew 
come  to  uufierstand  one  another,  and  the  refinetnent  in  the  cue  will  re- 
ceive its  full  recognition  from  the  refinement  in  the  other.  Acquaint- 
ance and  a  good  heart  are  the  checks  against  the  unthinking  con- 
demnation by  classes. 

III.  A  third  and  main  reason  why  the  Jew  should  rejoice  in  this 


396  GENERAL. 

Columbian  year  is  that  American  society  is,  in  an  important  sense, 
produced  and  held  together  by  Jewish  thought. 

The  justification  of  this  assertion  forces  on  us  the  question,  What 
has  the  Jew  done  for  civilization  ? 

First  of  all,  he  has  given  us  the  Bible,  the  Scriplures,  old  and 
Tiew.  It  matters  not  for  this  discussion  that  the  Jews,  as  a  religious 
sect,  have  never  given  to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  the  dignity 
of  canouicity.  It  suffices  that  those  books,  with  one,  or  possibly  two, 
exceptions,  were  written  by  men  of  Jewish  birth. 

1.  And  where  shall  one  go,  if  not  to  the  Bible,  to  find  the  noblest 
literature  of  the  soul?  Where  shall  one  find  so  well  expressed  as  iu 
the  Psalms  the  longing  for  God  and  the  deep  satisfaction  of  his  \n'es- 
€nce?  Where  burning  indignation  against  wrong-doing  more  strongly 
portrayed  than  in  the  prophets?  Where  such  a  picture  as  the  Gos- 
pels give  of  love  that  consumes  itself  in  sacrifice.  The  highest  hopes 
i^nd  moods  of  the  soul  reached  such  attainment  among  the  Jews  two 
thousand  years  ago,  that  the  intervening  ages  have  not  yet  shown  one 
step  in  advance. 

2.  Viewed  as  a  hand-book  of  ethics,  the  Bible  has  a  power  second 
only  to  its  exalted  position  as  a  classic  of  the  soul.  The  "  Ten  Words," 
though  negatively  expressed,  are  in  their  second,  half  an  admirable 
statement  of  the  fundamental  relations  of  man  to  man.  Paul's  eulogy 
of  love  is  an  unmatched  materpiece  of  the  foundation  principle  of 
right  living.  The  adoption  of  the  Golden  Rule  by  all  men  would 
banish  crime  and  convert  earth  into  a  paradise. 

3.  The  characters  depicted  in  the  Bible  are  in  their  way  no  less 
effective  than  the  teachings  regarding  ethics  and  religion.  Indeed, 
that  which  is  so  admirable  in  tliese  characters  is  the  rare  combination 
of  ethics  and  religion  which  finds  in  them  expression.  In  Abraliam 
we  see  hospitality  and  faith  attaining  to  adecjuate  expression.  Grant, 
if  you  will,  the  claim  tliat  part  of  the  picture  is  unhistnrieal.  Aye, 
let  one  have  it  who  will,  liiat  such  a  pcMson  as  Abraham  never  existed 
at  all.  The  character,  as  a  creation,  does  as  much  lienor  to  the  Jew 
wiio  conceived  it  as  the  man,  if  real,  does  to  the  race  to  which  he  be- 
longed. Moses  is  the  pattern  of  the  unselfish,  state-bnilding  patriot, 
■who  desi)ised  hardships  because  "  he  endureil  as  seeing  Him  who  is 
invisible."  Jereujiah  will  foi-ever  be  inspiration  to  reforniers  whose 
lot  is  cast  in  degenerate  days.  Paul  is  the  synonym  of  self-denying 
zeal,  which  can  be  content  with  nothing  less  than  a  gigantic  eff'ort  to 
carry  good  news  to  the  entire  world. 

And  Jesus  was  a  Jew.  How  often  is  this  fact  forgotten,  so  com- 
pletely is  he  identified  with  the  history  of  the  world  at  large.     We 


JEWISH   CONTRIBUTIONS   TO    CIVILIZATION.  397 

say  to  ourselves  that  such  a  commanding  personality  is  too  universal 
for  national  limitations.  We  overlook,  perchance,  the  Jndiean  birth 
and  the  Galilean  training.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  attempt  an  estimate 
of  the  significance  of  the  character  and  work  of  Jesus  for  luiinan 
progress.  Nothing  short  of  omniscience  could  ])erf()rm  such  a  task. 
My  purpose  is  attained  by  reminding  myself  and  others  anew  of  the 
nationality  of  him  whom  au  important  part  of  the  world  has  agreed  to 
consider  the  greatest  aiid  best  of  human  kind. 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  Jews  have  not  yet,  in  large  numbers,  ad- 
mitted the  greatness  of  Jesus,  but  this  failure  .may  be  largely  explained 
as  the  effect  of  certain  theological  teachings  concerning  his  person,  and 
of  tlie  sufferings  which  Jews  have  endured  at  the  hands  of  those  who 
bear  his  name.  But  in  that  name,  and  that  personality  rightly  con- 
ceived, there  is  snch  potency  to  bless  and  to  elevate,  that  I  can  see  no 
reason  why  Jesus  should  not  become  to  the  Jews  the  greatest  and  most 
beloved  of  all  their  illustrious  teachers. 

Viewing  the  Bible  as  a  whole,  as  a  library  of  ethics,  of  religion, 
of  ethical-religious  character,  its  influence  on  language,  on  devotion, 
on  growth  in  a  hundred  directions,  exceeds  all  human  computation. 

Along  with  the  Sacred  Writings  have  come  to  the  race,  through 
the  Jews,  certain  great  doctrines. 

Foremost  of  tiiese  is  the  belief  in  one  God.  Greek  {)hilosophy,  it 
is  true,  was  also  able  to  formulate  a  doctrine  of  monotheism,  but  the 
monotheism  which  has  perpetuated  itself  is  that  announced  by  Hebrew 
seer,  and  not  by  Greek  philosopher.  Something  was  wanting  to  make 
the  doctrine  more  than  a  cold  f  )rmu]a,  and  that  something  the  Jew- 
supplied.  It  is  the  phase  of  monotheism  which  he  attained  that  has 
commended  itself  to  the  peoples  of  Europe  and  America,  to  the  teem- 
ing millions  of  Islam,  and  whose  adoption  by  the  remaining  nations  of 
earth  is  more  than  a  pious  hope. 

This  God,  who  is  one,  is  not  a  blind  force,  working  on  lines  but 
half  defined,  coming  to  consciousness  only  as  he  attains  to  expression 
in  his  universe,  but  he  is  a  wise  architect  whose  devisings  all  things 
are.  The  heavens  declare  his  glory,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handiwork. 

His  o;<'vernment  is  well  ordered  and  ri<i;ht.  Cliance  and  fate  have 
here  no  place.  No  sparrow  falls  without  jiim.  The  very  hairs  on  your 
head  are  numbered.  Righteousness  is  the  habitation  of  his  throne. 
Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right? 

This  one  God,  maker  and  governor  of  all  things,  is  more,  he  is 
our  Father.  Man  is  created  in  his  image,  man's  nostrils  set  vibrating 
with   the  divine   breath.     The   prayer  of  all  prayers   begins:   "Our 


398  GENERAL. 

Father."  What  infinite  dignity  and  value  does  this  doctrine  place 
upon  the  human  soul !  From  God  we  come  and  his  perpetual  care  we 
are.  How  this  conviction  lifts  men  above  all  pettiness  and  discour- 
agement! Am  I  his  co-worker  with  him  on  lines  which  he  has  pre- 
ordained ?  Then  mine  the  joyful  task  to  work  with  zeal  in  the  good 
cause  whose  sure  success  is  seen  by  him  though  not  by  me. 

If  God  be  our  Father,  then  are  we  brothers?  The  convenient 
distinctions  among  men,  the  division  of  men  into  classes,  are  all  super- 
ficial, all  based  on  externals.  In  essence  men  are  one.  If  we  be  all 
brothers,  then  brotherly  duties  rest  upon  us  all.  Due  recognition  of 
our  brotherhood  would  stay  the  act  or  thought  of  wrong,  and  open  in 
every  heart  a  fountain  of  love.  Brothers!  then  will  I  seek  the 
Father's  features  in  every  face  and  try  to  arouse  in  every  soul  the 
cousciousness  of  its  lofty  kinship. 

Tlie  immortality  of  the  soul,  though  not  distinctively  a  Jewish 
belief,  is  implied  in  much  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  clearly  announced 
in  Daniel,  is  well  defined  in  the  centuries  preceding  our  era,  and  in 
the  New  Testament  is  often  stated  and  every-where  esteemed.  This 
doctrine  was  rescued  by  the  montjtheism  of  the  Jew  from  the  grotesque 
features  and  cerera(mies  which  characterized  it  among  the  Babylonians, 
the  Egyptians,  and  the  Greeks.  The  spiritual  genius  of  the  Jew, 
while  asserting  unequivocally  the  fact,  and  emphasizing  the  moral 
significance,  has  wisely  abstained  from  an  expression  of  opinion  re- 
garding a  thousand  details. 

By  the  side  of  these  great  doctrines  concerning  Gotl,  his  father- 
hood, man's  brotherhood,  the  soul,  its  dignity  and  immortality,  we 
must  place  yet  another,  the  Jewish  conception  of  the  golden  age. 
This  age  to  him  is  not  past  but  future.  He  had,  it  is  true,  his  picture 
of  Eden,  that  garden  of  God  where  the  first  man  held  free  converse 
with  his  Maker.  But  this  picture  is  not  of  Jewish  origin.  It  came 
from  Babylon,  and  never  succeeded  in  making  a  strong  impression  on 
the  national  tliought.  The  Old  Testament  scarcel}'  refers  to  it  outside 
of  the  narrative  in  Genesis.  In  view  of  the  emphasis  given  to  the 
story  by  later  theologies,  the  reserve  in  the  New  Testament  is  likewise 
most  significant.  The  reason  is  clear.  The  age  of  gold  is  yet  to  be. 
Prophet  anil  apostle  and  apocalyptic  seer  vie  witii  one  another  in  de- 
scribing the  glory  of  lenewed  huuuuiity  in  the  coming  kingdom  of 
God.  The  Jew  can  not  fasten  his  tliought  on  a  shattered  fortune.  The 
brilliant  castle  which  he  is  yet  to  build  is  too  entrancing  to  his  vision. 
There  is  here  no  place  fir  tears  over  the  remote  past,  but  only  a  fond 
looking  forward  and  working  toward  the  dawn  of  the  day  of  rigiiteous- 
uess  and  of  peace. 


JEWISH   OONTR[BUTIONS   TO    CIVILIZATION'.  399 

IV.  I  have  spokeu  of  our  iiitlebteilness  to  the  Jew  foi-  the  Bible 
aud  its  great  doctrines.  We  are  under  no  less  obligations  for  certain 
great  institutions. 

1.  Whence  conies  our  day  of  rest,  one  in  seven,  this  beneficent 
provision  for  recreation  of  man  and  beast,  tliis  day  consecrated  bv  the 
experience  of  centuries  to  good  deeds  aud  holy  thoughts?  We  meet 
with  indications  of  a  seven-day  division  of  time  in  an  Assyrian  calen- 
dar tablet,  but  we  are  able  to  assert  definitely  by  a  study  of  the  As.«y- 
rian  aud  Babylonian  commercial  records  that  these  people  had  nothing 
which  corresponded  to  the  Jewish  Sabbatli,  the  very  name  of  which 
means  rest.  The  origin  of  the  Sabbath  may  well  have  to  do  with  the 
moon's  phases.  But  the  Jew  viewed  the  day  with  such  sacredness 
that  he  makes  its  institution  coeval  with  the.  work  of  creation.  From 
him  ii  has  become  the  possession  of  the  western  world,  and  its  signifi- 
cance for  our  well-being,  physical,  moral  aud  spiritual,  is  vaster  than 
can  be  computed. 

2.  I  have  spokeu  already  of  Jesus  as  a  Jew.  Then  is  the  religion 
which  bears  his  name  a  Jewish  iustitution  ?  It  has  elements  which 
are  not  Jewish  ;  it  has  passed  into  the  keeping  of  those  who  are  not 
Jews.  But  its  earliest  advocates  aud  disciples,  no  less  than  its  founder, 
were  Jews.  Not  only  so,  but  these  all  considered  Jesus,  His  teaching 
and  the  teaching  concerning  Him,  as  the  culmination  of  the  Hebrew 
development,  the  fulfillment  of  the  Hebrew  prophets'  hope.'  Many 
causes  have  wrought  together  to  insure  the  victory  which  Christianity 
has  won  in  this  world.  But  those  who  are  filled  with  its  true  spirit 
and  who  are  thoughtful  can  never  forget  its  Judajan  origin. 

3.  To  the  same  source  we  must  likewise  trace  institutional  Chris- 
tianity, the  church.  The  first  church  was  at  Jerusalem.  Tlie  first 
churches  were  among  devout  Jews  dispersed  in  the  great  Gentile  cen- 
ters of  population.  The  ordinances  of  the  church  have  an  intimate 
connection  with  Jewish  religious  usages.  In  the  course  of  a  long  de- 
velopment other  elements  have  crept  in.  But  in  her  main  features 
the  church  bears  ever  the  stamp  of  her  origin.  The  service  is  Jewish. 
We  still  read  from  the  Jewish  Psalter,  we  still  sing  the  themes  of 
Psalmist  aud  apostle,  the  aim  of  the  sermon  is  still  to  rouse  the  lis- 
tener to  the  adoption  of  Jewish  ideas;  we  pray  in  phraseology  taken 
from  Jewish  Scriptures.  Our  Sunday  schools  have  for  their  prime  ob- 
ject acquaintance  with  Jewish  writings.     Our  missions  ai-e  designed  to 

^  The  greatest  expounder  oi  Christianity  writes  to  the  Kouuuis  that 
they  have  been  grafted  into  the  ohve  stock  of  which  the  Jews  were  branches 
by  nature. 


400  GENERAL. 

tell  meii  of  God's  love  as  revealed  to  them  through  a  Jew.  Our 
churcli  and  Christiau  charities  are  but  the  embodiment  of  the  Golden 
Rule  as  uttered  by  a  Jew. 

4.  It  may  furthermore  be  fairly  said  that  the  Jew,  through  these 
writings,  doctrines  and  institutions,  has  bequeathed  to  the  world  the 
highest  ideals  of  life.  On  the  binding  and  the  title  page  of  its  books 
the  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America  has  pictured  the  lamb  and 
the  lion  lying  down  together  and  the  child  playing  with  the  asp,  while 
underneath  the  picture  is  written  the  words,  "Israel's  mission  is 
peace."  Tlie  picture  tells  what  Israel's  prophet  saw  more  than  twenty- 
five  centuries  ago.  The  subscription  tells  less  than  the  truth.  Israel's 
mission  is  peace,  morality  and  religion  ;  or  better  still,  Israel  s  mission 
is  peace  through  morality  and  religion.  This  the  nation's  lesson  to 
the  world.  This  the  spirit  of  the  greatest  characters  in  Israel's  his- 
tory. To  live  in  the  same  spirit,  in  a  word,  to  become  like  the  fore- 
most of  all  Israelites — this  is  the  liigliest  that  any  man  has  yet  ven- 
tured to  hope. 

I  have  catalogued  with  some  detail,  though  by  no  means  with 
fullness,  Jewish  elements  in  our  civilization.  In  most  cases  I  have 
passed  no  judgment  on  these  elements.  If  one  were  disposed  to  in- 
quire into  their  value,  he  might  answer  his  question  by  trying  to  con- 
ceive what  we  should  be  without  the  Bible,  its  characters,  doctrines, 
ethics,  institutions,  hopes  and  ideals.  To  think  these  elements  absent 
from  our  civilization  is  impossible,  because  they  have  largely  made  us 
what  we  are.  jSTot  more  closely  interlocked  are  the  warp  and  woof  of 
a  fabric  than  are  these  elements  with  all  that  is  best  and  highest  in 
our  life  and  thought.  If  the  culture  of  our  day  is  a  fairer  product 
tliau  that  of  any  preceding  age,  we  can  not  fail  to  see  how  far  we  are 
indebted  for  this  to  the  Jew. 

My  purpose  has  not  been  to  inquire  by  what  means  the  little  na- 
tion of  Palestine  attained  to  its  iuii(iue  eminence.  Some  will  say  it  was 
by  a  revelation  made  to  tlicm  alone,  others  that  they  were  fortunate 
discoverers,  and  yet  others  would  explain  it  all  by  the  spell,  "  develop- 
ment." Be  one  or  all  these  answers  true,  the  Deity  can  reveal  Him- 
self only  to  the  choice  souls  who  have  understanding  for  the  higher 
thoutrht:  discoverv  is  made  oidv  bv  those  who  recognize  a  new  truth 
when  it  Hoats  into  the  field  of  vision  ;  development  is  only  growth  and 
differentiation  from  germs  already  existing.  Why  should  Israel  de- 
velop uidike  any  other  people,  why  discover  truth  hidden  from  others, 
why  become  receptacles  for  revelation  higher  than  any  attained  else- 
where? This  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  history,  but  the  mystery  can 
in  no  wise  obscure  the  fact. 


JEWISH    CONTRIBUTIONS   TO   CIVILIZATIOX.  401 

However,  explained  or  unexplained,  the  Jewish  role  in  hi'^tory 
belongs  to  the  most  splendid  achievements  of  the  human  race.  Alas, 
that  these  achievements  are  so  often  forgotten!  Forgotten  by  the 
Jew  himself,  when  he  devotes  his  powers  to  the  problems  of  to-day 
with  such  intensity  as  to  be  indifferent  to  his  nation's  past.  Forgot- 
ten by  those  among  whom  he  lives  when  they  view  him  as  an  alien, 
and  when  in  the  enjoyment  they  fail  to  recognize  the  source  of  some  of 
their  greatest  blessings.  It  is  not  alone  the  land  which  was  discovered 
by  Columbus,  but  the  entire  world  owes  to  the  Jew  a  debt  of  gratitude 
which  never  can  be  paid. 

A  practical  closing  question  forces  itself  on  our  attention.  The 
great  role  in  history  was  played  by  this  people  while  it  had  a  national 
or  semi-national  existence.  At  present  the  Jews  are  separated  from 
the  rest  of  the  community  mainly  by  certain  religious  observances.  Is 
the  Jew  of  to-day  worthy  of  the  glorious  jjast  of  his  people,  and  is  he 
entitled  to  any  of  the  consideration  which  impartial  history  must  ac- 
cord to  his  ancestors?  An  affirmative  answer,  if  it  can  be  given, 
ought  to  do  something  to  remove  prejudices  which  yet  linger  among 
us,  and  to  alleviate  the  fortunes  of  the  Jew  in  lands  less  liberal  than 
our  own. 

The  ancient  Jew  was  a  man  of  persistence  and  of  moral  and  spir- 
itual genius.  His  modern  brother  is  not  lacking  in  either  genius  or 
persistence.  His  persistence  and  power  to  recuperate  have  saved  him 
from  annihilation.  His  genius  shows  itself  chiefly  in  matters  of 
finance,  in  the  ability  to  turn  the  most  adverse  conditions  into  power. 
In  literature,  art,  music,  pholosophy,  he  is  of  the  community  at  large, 
averaging  high,  no  doubt,  but  with  nothing  distinctive.  In  the 
world's  markets,  in  commerce  and  trade,  he  distances  competition. 

The  extent  to  which  he  educates  his  children,  and  helps  his  poor 
to  become  self-supporting,  and  the  very  small  percentage  which  he 
furnishes  to  the  annals  of  crime,  give  to  him  a  high  character  for 
morality.  The  Montefiores,  Hirschs,  Emma  Lazaruses,  Jacob  SchifFs, 
and  Felix  Adlers  show  what  power  and  spirit  of  benevolence  and  re- 
form still  belong  to  the  Jew.  It  would  perhaps  be  too  much  to  de- 
mand further  great  religious  contributions  from  this  people.  But  it 
can  hardly  be  that  a  people  of  such  glory  in  the  past  and  of  such  pres- 
ent power  shall  fail  to  attain  again  to  that  eminence  in  the  highest 
things  for  which  they  seem  to  be  marked  out  by  their  unique  history. 
26 


402  GENERAL. 


INTRODUCTION   TO  A   BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF   THE  JEWISH 

PERIODICAL  PRESS. 

By  dr.  ISAAC  M.  WISE. 


The  fifth  great  power  in  this  nineteenth  century  is  Journalism. 

It  is  generally  presumed  that  there  are  four  great  powers  which 
govern  society,  viz.,  the  sword,  the  pen,  money,  and  \voman.  It 
might  be  supposed  by  further  generalization  toward  the  ultimate  ab- 
stiaction  one  could  reduce  the  parallelogram  of  efficient  causes  to  the 
mere  parallel  of  money  and  woman.  It  must  be  admitted  that  money 
is  miglitier  than  the  sword  and  the  pen  ;  it  directs  and  controls  both. 
Cai)ital  is  king  every-where,  in  the  capitols  of  nations,  the  parlors  of 
society,  the  banks,  tlie  shops,  and  according  to  the  vox  populi,  also  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  pen.  Not  all  is  money,  says  the  monometalist ;  but 
money  is  all,  woman  excepted,  anyhow  the  monomania  of  the  centi';ry. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  woman  is  mightier  than  sword  and 
pen ;  she  controls  and  directs  both.  Where  a  king  sits  upon  the 
throne,  the  queen  or  a  queen  governs  the  land.  Woman  wields  the 
pen  quite  energetically.  All  your  beautiful  poetry  is  inspired  by 
woman.  It  is  no  longer  the  pen,  it  is  the  typewriter,  that  does  the 
mighty  work,  and  woman  is  the  queen  at  the  typewriter.  Long  ago 
the  pen  was  superseded  by  the  types  and  type-setters,  pressmen,  and 
printer's  devil.  The  steel  pen  dethroned  your  quill,  and  woman  super- 
sedes them  all.  The  word  pen  is  an  antiquated  symbolic  term,  and 
the  sword  is  deposed  abroad  by  the  canon,  and  with  us  by  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  people. 

So  you  see  in  the  ultimate  abstraction  of  social  powers,  there  is 
left  money  and  woman.  These,  however,  are  stern  realities  and  no 
abstractions.  To  be  nietai)hysically  correct,  we  can  not  reduce  the 
parallelogram  to  a  mere  parallel.  We  can  only  change  the  antiquated 
terms  of  sword  and  pen  in  the  concrete  (like  money  and  woman),  em- 
perors or  kings,  and  the  Press.  Being  myself  a  democratic  man  and 
this  being  the  World's  Fair,  it  would  ill  become  me  to  dwell  on  em- 
perors and  kings.  Having  been  connected  with  the  Press  these  forty- 
five  years,  and  this  l)cing  a  Press  Congress,  I  might  with  propriety 


BIBLIOGRAPHY    OF   THE   JEWISH    PERIODICAL    PRESS.  403 

say  something  about  the  Press,  with  a  capital  P,  as  one  of  the  great 
powers. 

When  we  speak  of  tlie  Press  as  one  of  tlie  great  powers,  we  do 
not  mean  that  piece  of  mechanism  called  the  power  press,  or  any  other 
of  the  same  kind.  We  speak  of  that  intellectual  food  which  it  multi- 
plies so  many  thousandfold  for  the  nutrition  of  human  intellect.  In 
this  sense  the  Press  is  by  no  means  a  unit.  It  manufactures  sense  and 
nonsense,  morality  and  its  direct  opposite,  enlightenment  and  benight- 
eument,^  religion  and  superstition,  bigotry  and  frivolity,  faith  and 
skepticism,  truth  and  falsehood,  justice  and  oppression,  freedom  and 
slavery,  facts  and  fictions.  It  serves  all  masters,  is  every  thing  to 
everybody;  it  can  not  be  considered  a  unit.  We  must  necessarily 
subdivide  it.     We  might  accomplish  this  on  the  following  principle: 

The  substantial  Press  can  not  be  divided  by  the  criteria  of  its  in- 
ner causes,  for  they  are  innumerable,  as  infinite  as  the  products  of  rea- 
son and  the  sentiments  of  conscience.  As  none  can  count  the  follies 
of  man  to  classify  them,  much  less  could  he  count  or  measure  the  in- 
finite variety  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  waves  which  rise  from  the 
wide  and  deep  sea  of  human  ingenuity ;  and  yet  all  of  them  are  feed- 
ers of  the  Press,  its  inner  cause  and  motive  power.  We  must  divide 
the  Press  and  its  products  according  to  outward  forms.  Here  we  have 
since  the  advent  of  Guttenburg  and  Dr.  Faust  the  Book  Press,  and  in 
this  nineteenth  century  the  Periodical  Press.  If  we  may  call  the  for- 
mer Bookism,  the  latter  is  properly  called  Journalism.  Here,  then,  is 
your  fifth  great  power,  its  name  is  Journalism,  the  youngest  offspring 
of  old  Dame  Press,  rapidly  outgrowing  the  mothers  fjime,  power,  and" 
usefulness.  The  journal  is  the  people's  book.  What  the  book  was  to 
the  select  few,  the  journal  is  now  to  the  multitude  of  mankind.  What 
the  book  is  to  the  student,  the  journal  is  to  all  classes  of  busy  men. 
The  magazine  is  the  connecting  link  between  tiie  two,  a  kind  of  sub- 
stitute for  either,  but  the  essay  is  no  treatise;  skimming  the  milk  pro- 
duces no  butter,  still  it  furnishes  cream.  It  is  something  akin  to  uni- 
versity extension  and  Chautauqua  classes.  It  is  something  which 
amoupts  to  nothing  in  re. 

The  division  of  labor  produced  also  the  division  in  Journalism. 
We  have  all  kinds  of  them  in  almost  every  country.  The  political 
and  the  impolitic,  the  scientific  and  the  unscientific,  with  their  ramifi- 
cations in  astronomical,  medical,  mathematical,  ethical,  esthetical  law, 
etc.,  journals,  and  last,  though  not  least,  the  religious  press,  with  its 
kindred  branches.     All  of  them  gather  the  news,  each  in  its  own  de- 

'  This  word  is  taken  from  tiie  free  coinage  dictionary. 


404  GENKHAL. 

partment,  with  occasional  excursions  into  the  neighbor's  field.  The 
reviewer  collects  the  literary  news,  as  the  society  editor  collects  the 
gossip.  The  political  organ  'gathers  the  current  news  of  the  day  and 
deals  or  dabbles  occasionally  also  in  literature,  science  and  religion. 
The  religious  organ  does  about  the  same.  None  remains  within  its 
sphere. 

The  religious  journal  as  a  specialty  came  into  existence  simultane- 
ously with  the  American  and  French  revolutions,  because  this  was  the 
practical  start  of  separating  Church  from  State.  Prior  to  tliis  separa- 
tion the  political  was  necessarily  also  the  religious  journal.  When  the 
State  emancipated  itself  from  tiie  Church,  and  the  Church  was  thrown 
upon  its  own  resources,  the  j)olitical  journal  became  semi-religious  and 
the  religious  journal  became  sem.i-political,  and  there  they  abide  yet, 
much  to  the  disadvantage  of  both. 

If  the  religious  journal  is  the  transportable  pulpit,  it  can  not 
a£f<)rd  to  deal  in  politics.  If  the  political  journal  is  the  mouth,-piece 
and  tutor  of  the  people  in  all  secular  affairs,  it  must  avoid  interference 
in  matters  of  religion,  where  Church  and  State  are  separated.  They 
can  assist  one  another  only  by  keeping  each  strictly  within  its  own 
sphere  of  journalism.  The  same  is  the  case  with  all  specialties  in  the 
periodical  press. 

The  matter  was  different  with  the  Hebrews.  They  could  have  no 
political  journals;  they  were  politically  disfranchised  the  world  over, 
when  the  periodical  press  began  its  work,  and  remained  in  this  status 
till  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America  restored  the  in- 
alienable rights  of  man  to  the  maltreated  portion  of  humanity,  and 
the  French  revolution  proclaimed  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity. 
The  Jewish  journal  not  evolving  from  the  political  journal,  could  be 
but  non-political  at  its  inception.  If  here  or  there  exceptionally,  a 
Jewish  journal  seeks  to  make  political  capital,  it  is  mostly  for  the  sake 
of  capital,  and  least  for  politics,  where  the  Israelite  has  no  particular 
interest  in  politics  .separate  and  apart  from  all  his  other  fellow-citizens. 

But  Jewish  journalism  was  involved  in  two  difficulties.  These 
were,  and  partly  are  yet,  the  defense  of  Judaism  and  the  defense  of 
the  Jew.  Both  of  them  in  the  history  of  modern  civilization  were 
constantly  kept  on  the  <iefensive,  as  is  invariably  the  fate  of  the  minor- 
ity opposite  an  overwhelming  majority,  where  the  sense  of  justice  and 
truth  not  yet  outbalances  the  consciousness  and  haughtiness  of  power 
and  self-willed  might.  Where  is  this  land,  where  this  Eden,  where? 
Echo  responds,  nowhere,  and  it  was  far,  very  far  from  there  at  the 
inception  of  Jewish  journalism.  It  was  obliged  to  contend  at  once 
with  inimical  systems  of  science,  philosophy,  theology  and  government 


BIBLIOGRAPHY   OF   THE   JEWISH   PERIODICAL    PRESS.  405 

from  without,  aud  an  overgrown  rabbinical  legalism  and  cal)balistic 
mysticism — falsely  called  orthodoxy — from  within.  Tiiis  made  the 
Jewish  press  polemical  in  two  directions,  as  it  had  made  the  Hebraic 
book  press  of  prior  centuries,  and  diminished  its  usefulness  in  its  own 
legitimate  field. 

In  the  course  of  progress  in  this  nineteenth  century,  the  Jew  and 
Judaism  were  but  partially  relieved  from  that  defensive  position.  In 
the  lands  of  absolutism  the  case  underwent  no  chanere  for  the  better. 
In  the  countries  of  transition  from  absolutism  to  the  reign  of  justice 
the  evil  is  but  partially  remedied  ;  the  Jew  suffers  yet  under  political 
disabilities,  aud  the  cause  for  political  polemics  is  not  extinguished. 
In  the  lands  of  relative  freedom  the  Jew  is  socially  ostracised,  and  this 
ostracism  peeps  frequently  aud  indecently  through  the  crevices  of 
social  etiquette,  and  Judaism  is  quite  recklessly  and  frequently  at- 
tacked by  pietistic  pulpits,  journals  and  hired  missionaries  to  expedite 
Judaism  out  of  existence.  Discouraging  and  irritating  factors  of , this 
kind  exercise  a  humiliating  influence  upon  the  bulk  of  Hebrews,  and 
their  journalists  are  morally  bound  to  take  up  the  gauntlet  thrown  so 
petulantly  at  their  feet.  With  all  this,  tlie  contention  with  inimical 
systems  of  science,  philosophy  and  theology  from  without,  and  against 
the  overgrown  rabbinical  legalism  and  cabbalistic  mysticism  from 
within  has  not  ceased,  it  is  only  moderated  in  the  most  civilized  coun- 
tries. jSTo  wonder  then,  that  Jewish  journalism  has  become  polemic 
and  frequeutly  political  in  tone  and  tendency;  and  as  not  all  lueu  are 
sweet-tempered  aud  long-suffering,  not  all  hold  that  language  was  in- 
vented to  hide  man's  thoughts  and  feelings,  it  would  be  wonderful  if, 
at  some  time  or  other,  volleys  of  abuse  aud  invective  did  not  come 
down  from  that  defensive  position  upon  the  heads  of  foes  and  friends. 

These  are  the  faults  and  shortcomings  of  Jewish  journalism  from 
its  very  inception,  which  impaired  considerably  its  usefulness. 

The  merits  and  usefulness  of  the  Jewish  press  consist  of  its  uni- 
versality, its  liberality  in  dogmas,  and  its  unceasing  propaganda  for 
science  and  art,  civilization  and  culture. 

AVhen  the  distinguished  philosopher,  contemporary  with  Lessiug, 
Herder  and  Kant,  Moses  Mendelsohn,  of  Dessau,  made  the  first  at- 
tempt to  publish  a  Jewish  journal  in  Berlin,  he  failed;  it  was  too  soon. 
His  disciples,  however,  during  his  lifetime,  succeeded  in  establishing 
the  Measseph,  a  periodical  in  the  Hebrew  language.  This  periodical 
product  became  to  journalism  and  the  new  Hebrew  language  what 
Addison's  "  Spectator"  was  to  the  English.  The  3feasseph  was  no  less 
poetical,  critical,  reformatory  in  rhetorical  forms,  no  less  elegant  and 
esthetic,  and  no  more  scientific  and  theological  than  the  "  Spectator." 


406  GENERAL. 

The  belletristio  tone  predominated  in  both.  Both  of  these  periodicals 
are  landmai'ks  pointing  out  the  transition  from  crudeness  to  refine- 
ment, from  the  careless  to  tlie  polished  style. 

The  3Ieasseph  was  Hebrew,  because  the  bulk  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Germany,  Austria,  Hun<;ary,  tlie  Danubian  principalities  down  to  the 
Black  Sea,  Germany,  Poland  and  Russia — and  these  are  the  largest 
number  of  Israelites  also  in  our  days — as  far  as  the  German  or  Sla- 
vonic languages  reached,  the  Hebrews,  excepting  some  professional 
scholars,  could  read  Hebrew  only  and  no  other  language.  The  Ger- 
man and  Slavonic  languages  had  so  long  and  so  fiercely  poured  upon 
those  neglected  and  j)ersecuted  Hebrews,  insult  and  injustice  in  all 
forms  of  barbarism?,  that  the  offended  and  insulted  people  considered 
it  sinful  to  learn  either  of  those  hostile  languages.  They  would  read 
only  Hebrew  and  the  Aramaic  which  occurs  in  the  Hebrew  literature, 
which  was  to  them  so  much  more  the  holy  language  as  the  German 
and  Slavonic  bounded  in  profanities,  insults  and  barbarisms. 

The  3Ieasseph  or  "Compiler,"  was  followed  in  course  of  time  by 
Bickure  Itiim,  "First  Fruits  of  the  Times,"  Kerem  Chemed,  "Choice 
Vineyard,"  and  two  hundred  and  more  other  Hebrew  journals,  up  to 
twodaily  paj)ers  appearing  for  some  time  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Warsaw. 
This  style  of  journalism  started  in  Germany,  spread  over  Austria,  es- 
pecially Galicia,  in  Poland  and  Russia,  into  Turkey  to  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  became  the  main  source  of  information  to  the  Israelites  in 
the  Orient,  turned  them  again  westward  and  pitched  its  tent  in  almost 
every  metropolis  of  the  western  world ;  in  Vienna,  Berlin,  Amster- 
dam, Paris,  London  and  New  York,  and  became  thus  a  universal 
organ  to  Hebrews  and  Hebrew  scholars  the  world  over,  as  was  the 
Latin  to  Ronum  Catliolics. 

The  amcMint  of  information  spread  by  means  of  this  kind  among 
European  Israelites,  especially  those  who  could  not  be  reached  by  any 
other  organs,  was  to  them  of  great  importance  and  benefit.  All  this 
was  of  more  importance,  however,  to  the  Jews  of  Asia,  who  were  thus 
brought  in  contact  with  European  civilization  and  culture,  and  be- 
came in  tiu'ir  turn  the  missionaries  of  civilization  among  their  neigh- 
bors;  and  they  are  so  yet  this  day.  The  sciences,  especially  the 
meilical,  were  thus  carried  back  into  Asia;  so  was  poetry,  gram mai', 
and  a  large  amount  of  l)elletrisiic  German,  French  and  English  liter- 
atures were  circulated  among  them  in  Hebrew  translations.  LessiiTg, 
Schiller,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  liyron  and  Dickens,  recast  in  Hebrew, 
were  carried  into  Russia  and  Asia  and  made  the  Jew  acquainted  with 
the  worhl's  literature  and  the  progressive  spirit  of  the  century. 

Hebrew  journalism  has  accom])lishf'd  another  wonderful  task.      It 


BIBLIOGRAPHY   OF   THE   JEWISH    PERIODICAL   PRESS.  407 

has  laid  the  fouudatiou  to  the  Science  of  Judaism,  i,  e.,  the  history 
and  theology  of  Judaism,  together  with  its  vast  literature  reviewed 
and  reconstructed  in  the  light  of  modern  methods  and  researches, 
which  German  and  French  writers  completed  to  a  modern  science  ac- 
cessible to  the  students  of  ail  denominations  and  incorporated  in  the 
world's  literature.  And  still  another  which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  won- 
derful. Those  journalists  rejuvenated  the  Hebrew  to  a  language  of 
modern  culture,  with  an  abundant  termiuoiogy  for  all  sciences,  indus- 
try and  commerce,  so  that  the  ancient  language  of  the  Bible  is  now 
expanded  to  a  complete  vehicle  of  modern  society. 

Most  important  in  Jewish  journalism  was  the  German  press.  The 
Israelites  of  Germany,  Austria  included,  from  and  afier  the  days  of 
Moses  Mendelsohn,  established  the  modern  scholarship,  which  pro- 
duced the  "Science  of  Judaism,"  accessible  to  the  students  of  all  de- 
nominations, and  introduced  it  into  the  world's  literature.  The  dis- 
ciples of  the  German  schools  carried  the  new  era  of  Jewish  learning 
into  France,  England,  Holland  and  America.  The  German  Jewish 
journal  was  the  mediator  between  the  men  of  learning  and  the  people 
in  general.  It  carried  upon  its  wings  the  higher  conceptions  of  Juda- 
ism— its  history  and  literature,  its  theology  and  ethics  tliroughout 
western  Europe  and  America,  and  to  tiie  eastern  confines  of  civiliza- 
tion. What  is  called  modern  Judaism  was  begotten  in  Germany  and 
German  Austria,  and  carried  by  the  press  to  all  ends  of  civilization. 
This  press  became  French  in  France,  Dutch  in  Holland,  Engli.<h  in 
England,  America  and  Australia,  Italian  in  Italy,  Roumanian  in  Rou- 
mania,  or  also  Magyar  in  Hungary  ;  still  it  is  every-where  the  ofF^^pring 
of  the  Jewish  Germanic  mind  and  scholarship,  and  in  most  cases  car- 
ried to  all  those  countries  by  the  sons  of  Germany  and  Austria.  The 
first  editors  of  Jewish  journals  in  France,  England  and  America  were 
Geumans  by  birth.  The  German  language  was  carried  by  them  into 
Russia  and  Poland,  in  the  form  of  that  German  Jewish  dialect  spoken 
by  that  people,  and  reached  also  Paris,  London  and  New  York ;  and 
the  pure  German  was  carried  to  Roumania,  Hungary,  Galicia,  and  to 
this  country,  where  this  day  three  German  Jewish  journals  appear 
every  week.  In  all  these  languages,  however,  it  is  chiefly  the  Ger- 
manic mind  and  scholarship  which  characterizes  the  editorial  pro- 
ductions. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain — there  exist  no  statistics  upon  which  tp 
base — what  influence  this  particular  journalism  exercised  upon  the 
progress  of  civilization  and  enlightenment  beyond  the  limits  of  Juda- 
ism. We  can  but  surmise  on  general  principle  that  no  department  of 
literature,  especially  if  it  is  as  bulky  as  the  Jewish  press,  fails  to  im- 


403  GENERAL. 

press  the  world  outside  of  its  home  circle.  What  we  can  maintain 
with  certainty  is  that  this  Germanic  Jewish  press  liberalized  the  masses 
])')litically  and  socially  to  a  very  wide  extent.  In  Germany  and 
Austria  the  Jew  was  disfranchised  and  even  ostracised  up  to  the  year 
1848,  or  even  up  to  1865  in  Austria  and  1870  in  Prussia,  and  are  even 
now  to  some  extent  under  the  ban  of  medieval  ethics.  But  there  was 
just  enough  freedom  of  tlie  press  left  to  complain  loudly  and  publicly, 
and  to  arirue  logically  from  the  principle  of  right  and  justice.  Those 
Jewish  editors  stood  up  for  the  rights  of  their  oppressed  neighbors 
quite  vigorously.  Tliey  argued  against  injustice,  oppression,  abso- 
lutism, and  despotism  for  all  kinds  of  wronged  people.  The  influence 
which  Jewisli  journalism  viewed  frf)m  this  standpoint,  exercised  on  the 
hapless  and  helpless  of  all  kinds  and  descripticms,  is  not  fully  ascer- 
tained, but  it  is  loudly  maintained  and  even  exaggerated  by  extreme 
conservatives  and  re-action ists,  so  that  they  call  all  liberal  and  ad- 
vanced organs  Jewish,  and  claim  that  the  whole  press  of  Europe  is 
in  the  hands  of  Jews. 

The  amount  of  prejudices,  superstitions,  errors,  falsehoods,  and 
injustice  ex|)edited  out  of  existence  or  banished  into  the  dark  spots  of 
illiterate  and  neglected  humanity  by  Jewish  journalism  is  prodigious 
in  the  eyes  of  tho.se  that  love  best  the  tin  plates  of  their  grandmothers, 
and  would  not  have  them  replaced  by  silver  vessels.  With  all  its 
labors  the  Jewish  press  did  not  fully  succeed  in  silencing  or  convert- 
ing this  class  of  people,  either  within  or  without  the  circle  of  Judaism  ; 
still  it  diminished  their  number  and  enfeebled  their  arguments.  There 
is  hope  for  the  future. 

A  third  division  of  Jewish  journalism  is  the  Spanish-Arabic,  to 
which  belongs  also  the  new  Greek  published  in  Corfu,  and  the  Hindoo 
published  in  Bombay.  Some  of  them  are  in  the  Spanish-Jewish 
dialect,  others  in  Hebrew.  Those  published  in  India  are  in.  the 
Menatic  language.  These  jorints  have  not  I'eached  the  centers  of 
literature  like  the  Hebraic  and  German  productions,  hence  their  in- 
flnence  could  have  been  local  only.  Still  they  are  parts  of  the  whole, 
and  deserve  the  attention  of  the  bibliographic  student. 

The  mutual  relations  of  the  Jewish  to  the  other  religious  press 
was  very  kindly  in  the  countries  where  progressive  ideas  are  cherished 
and  a  spirit  of  tolerance  prevails.  Jewish  writers  profited  very  much 
1)}'  reading  what  other  religious  denominations  advanced.  Whether 
this  is  the  case  also  on  the  other  side,  it  is  hard  to  tell  for  one  who 
was  never  engaged  in  tliat  field.  The  political  press  exercises  an  in- 
fluence on  the  religions  press  by  it-^  interi)retation  of  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  which,  after  all,  moderates  and  shapes  ecclesiastical  doctrine  and 


BIBLIOGKAPHY    OF   THE   JEWISH    PEKIODICAL   PRESS.  409 

practice  with  or  without  tlie  consent  of  its  presiding  geniuses.  On 
the  otlier  hand,  the  religious  press,  with  its  conservative  nature,  en- 
deavors to  correct  public  opinion  and  to  expose  the  errors  in  the  spirit 
of  the  age.  So  these  two  great  powers  may  woik  into  each  other's 
hands  without  rivalry  or  animosity  for  the  benefit  of  both  and  the 
progress  of  mankind  toward  higher  conditions.  The  Jewish  press  in 
all  lands  of  culture  did  take  this  position  opposite  the  political  press, 
and  so  the  influence  was  mutual,  i'rieudly,  and  efficient.  Therefore, 
the  most  influential  political  prints  in  America,  England,  France, 
Itaiy,  and  Germany  are  favorable  to  Jews  and  Judaism  ;  only  less  im- 
portant organs  and  those  of  despotic  countries  are  hostile  to  the  de- 
scendants of  Abraham  and  the  followers  of  Moses. 

This  may  suffice  as  an  introduction  to  the  bibliography  of  Jewish 
journalism,  which  we  attempt  to  contribute  to  the  World's  Congress 
in  memory  of  the  great  event.  The  Religious  Congress  of  all  Nations 
and  Denominations,  an  event  without  precedent  in  history. 


410  GENERAL. 


THE  ARCHBISHOP  OF  ZANTE  ON  THE  BLOOD  ACCUSATION. 


[Rabbi  Hirsch,  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  Barrows,  presided  at  the 
evening  session.  He  first  introduced  the  Archbishop  of  Zante,  who, 
after  a  gracious  salutation  to  the  platform  occupants  and  the  audience, 
said  :] 

"  Most  Honorable  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — I  am  not  a  Jew. 
I  am  a  Christian,  a  profound  believer  of  the  truth  of  the  Gospel. 
[Applause.]  I  ara  always  bound  to  defend  the  truth,  and  for  this  rea- 
son I  present  a  paper  here  to-night." 

[Professor  Snell  then  stepped  forward  at  the  Archbishop's  request 
and  said  that  his  grace,  the  Archbishop,  had  asked  him  to  read  for 
him  a  statement  regarding  the  belief  current  in  the  Orient  and  in 
many  parts  of  Europe  to  the  effect  that  Jews  are  in  the  habit  of  catch- 
ing Christian  cliildren  and  sacrificing  them  upon  the  altar.  This  was 
the  statement  read  :] 

"  In  the  East  the  belief  is  current  among  the  ignorant  masses  of  the 
population  that  the  Jews  use,  for  purposes  of  religious  rites,  the  blood 
of  Christian  children,  and,  in  order  to  procure  such  blood,  do  not 
shrink  from  committing  murder.  In  consequence  of  this  belief,  out- 
breaks against  the  Jews  are  frequent,  and  the  innocent  victims  are 
subjected  to  many  indignities  and  exposed  to  great  danger.  In  view 
of  the  fiict  that  such  erroneous  ideas  are  also  current  among  the  igno- 
rant of  other  countries,  and  during  tiie  last  decade,  both  Germany  and 
Austria  were  the  scenes  of  trials  of  innocent  Jews,  under  the  accusa- 
tion of  having  coininitte<l  such  ritual  murder,  I,  as  a  Christian  min- 
ister, ask  this  Congress  to  record  our  conviction,  that  Judaism  forbids 
murder  of  any  kind,  and  that  none  of  its  sacred  authorities  and  books 
con)mand  or  permit  murder,  or  the  use  of  human  blood  for  ritual 
practices  or  religious  ceremonies.  The  circulation  of  such  slander 
a<:ainst  the  adherents  of  a  monotheistic  faith  is  unchristian.  The 
origin  of  the  calumny  must  be  traced  to  the  Roman  conceit,  that  early 
Christians  used  human  blood  in  their  religious  observances.  It  is  not 
consonant  with  Christian  duty  to  allow  this  horrible  charge  to  go  uu- 
rebuked,  and  it  is  in  the  interest  of  Christianity's  good  repute  that  I 
ask  this  parliament  to  declare  that  Judaism  and  the  Jews  are  innocent 
of  the  imputed  crime,  as  were  the  Christians  of  the  first  century." 


REMARKS    ON    ANTI-SEMITISM.  411 


REMARKS  ON  ANTI-SEMITISM. 

By  ARCHBLSHOP  JOHN  IRELAND. 


Ladies  of  the  Congress: — It  is  with  deep  emotion  of  soul  that 
I  cross  the  threshold  of  this  hall.  I  come  among  the  representatives 
of  an  ancient  people  whom  my  own  religion  recognizes  as  having  been 
during  long  ages  the  chosen  people  of  God,  whose  history,  replete  with 
noble  deeds  and  glorious  names,  goes  back  to  remote  ages,  thousands 
of  years  before  modern  nations  of  Europe  and  America  were  heard  of, 
whose  literature  is  the  first  and  best  the  world  owns,  worthy  to  have 
been  the  united  product  of  earth  and  heaven. 

When  all  humanity  outside  the  frontiers  of  Judea  was  darkened 
by  the  fatal  errors  of  polytheism  and  idolatry,  one  people,  aud  one 
only,  preserved  pure  and  unsullied  the  religion  of  the  spiritual  world, 
and  the  worship  of  the  one  Infinite  God.  Moses  aud  the  prophets 
were  the  polar  stars  set  in  the. firmament  of  intelligence,  whence 
light  and  truth  and  hope  came  to  men.  The  sweet  songs  of  Israel 
have  not  been  surpassed  in  sublimity  of  thought  and  exaltation  of 
sentiment,  and  they  are  to-day  the  highest  expressions  of  the  human 
soul  communing  with  God. 

The  Hebrew  people  were  chosen  by  Jehovah  to  be  the  keeper  of 
His  revelation,  the  forerunner  of  all  future  civilization.  All  nations 
which  worship  one  great  God,  and  practice  His  pure  religion,  must 
avow  themselves  heirs  of  Israel,  and  i-epeat  the  words  of  the  psalm  : 
"  If*I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand  be  forgotten.  Let 
my  tongue  cleave  to  my  jaws,  if  I  do  not  remember  thee,  if  I  do  not 
make  Jerusalem  the  beginning  of  my  joy." 

The  preservation  of  the  Hebrew  people  through  centuries,  despite 
their  sufferings  and  their  dispersion  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
is  one  of  history's  greatest  miracles.  AVhatever  the  explanation  which 
may  be  given  of  it,  we  must  wonder  and  admire. 

Christians  and  Hebrews  have  parted  roads.  But  Christians  look 
back  to  the  Hebrews  as  having  been  for  ages  the  people  of  God,  and 
proclaim  their  own  religion  to  be  the  result  and  complement  of  the 
Hebrew  dispensation.     The  Founder  of  their  religion  is  for  Christians 


412  GENERAL. 

the  Son  of  David  and  of  Abraham,  aud  his  mother,  Mary,  is  the 
Lily  of  Israel,  the  daughter  of  Nazareth. 

I  shall  be  pardoned  fur  these  remarks,  which  the  sight  of  this 
Congress  of  Jewish  Women  elicits  from  me,  and  wliich,  at  the  same 
time,  are  not  altogether  remote  from  the  main  question  to  which  I  am 
asked  to  speak. 

You  are  holding  a  peace  congress,  offering  peace  to  all,  and  ask- 
ing peace  from  all.  You  desire  that  persecution  and  ostracism  of  the 
Jewish  race  cease  through  the'world.  I  join  with  you  most  cordially 
in  your  hopes  and  wishes,  and,  while  neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of 
a  prophet,  I  know  I  can  say  that  the  reign  of  peace  aud  security  which 
you  strive  to  establish  is  near  at  hand. 

The  duty  of  conscience  to  adhere  to  what  is  recognized  as  truth, 
to  adhere  most  tenaciously  with  mind  and  heart  to  principles,  is  most 
firmly  upheld  by  me,  and  most  persistently  proclaimed.  Peace  with 
men  who  differ  from  me  does  not  mean  the  abandonment  of  my  con- 
victions. But  I  hold  to  the  great  rule  of  charity  and  common  brother- 
hood to  treat  with  amity,  and  as  I  would  wish  to  be  treated  by  them, 
all  my  fellow-men,  in  civil  and  political  matters,  however  much  they 
may  differ  from  me  in  belief  of  religion,  in  race,  in  language,  in  color. 
Tliere  is  no  need  that  we  refer  this  evening  to  historic  conditions 
which  are  gone  by  under  which  Hebrews  suffered ;  we  live  in  the 
present,  and  we  should  busy  ourselves  most  with  the  present  which  is 
with  us  and  the  future  which  is  coming  to  us.  I  shall  only  make  this 
remark,  that  while  in  past  centuries  Hebrews  were  not  seldom  ex- 
po.'sed  to  dire  persecutions  in  different  nations  of  Europe,  in  the  seven- 
hilled  city  of  Rome,  over  which  the  chief  of  the  Catholic  Church  held 
temporal  sway,  they  were  always  secure  at  least  in  property  and  in 
life,  and  often  thronged  to  Rome  from  other  countries  iu  search  of 
peace  and  protection. 

The  present  age  is  one  of  concord  and  peace,  which  builds  ftself 
up  on  the  broad  lines  of  Initnanity  and  common  brotherhood.  The 
United  States  of  America  gives  the  example  in  this  matter  to  the 
world,  and,  hence,  it  is  the  most  important  that  Americans  carry  out 
to  the  letter  the  principles  of  their  constitution.  There  are  some  de- 
fects in  their  practice  ;  ostracism  of  one  kind  or  another  on  the  mere 
basis  of  race  is  not  totally  unknown.     Our  first  work  is  at  home. 

In  other  countries  the  ostracism  is  more  marked  ;  civil  persecu- 
tion even  hap|)ens.  In  the  name  of  humanity,  we  should  work  to 
alter  such  conditions.  It  does  not  matter  which  the  particular  people, 
or  which  the  particular  race,  that  is  persecuted  ;  all  peoples  and  all 
races  are  concerned,  for  if  one  is  persecuted  to-day,  another  may  be 


REMARKS   ON    ANTI-SEMITISM.  413 

persecuted  to-morrow.  Oue  class  or  one  people  is  safe  when  all  are 
safe.  A  government  is  bound  to  cause  the  observance  of  laws  of  social 
order  and  of  justice;  men  violating  these  must  be  punished.  But, 
when  not  violating  them,  men  should  not  be  disturbed.  Let  there  be 
no  distinction  in  citizenship,  no  discrimination  of  classes  of  citizens,  no 
presum[)tive  judgments  against  any  portion  of  a  people. 

Public  opinion  is  now-a-days  the  great  arm  of  defense *and  con- 
quest. The  strongest  governments  go  down  before  it.  You  have  en- 
tered upon  the  road  to  success  when  you  undertake  to  redress  wrongs 
inflicted  on  the  Hebrew  race  by  awakening  the  world's  public  opinion. 
You  will  conquer,  and  the  day  is  nigh  when  in  America  and  in  Europe, 
on  the  Mississippi,  and  on  the  Danube,  and  throughout  the  vast  em- 
pire of  Russia,  all  men  shall  be  brothers,  and  treated  by  one  another 
as  brothers. 

May  God  hasten  the  d:iy  ! 


liS^DEX. 


Auti-Senntisra.  Kenan  the  intelU'ctual  father  of  modern  a. -S.  274.  Anti- 
Semitic  charges  refuted,  285  ft".  Tiie  elleets  of  a.-S.  on  -the  Jew,  295  f. 
Remarks  on  the  subject  by  Archbishop  John  Irehmd,  411  ff. 

Archbishop  of  Zante  on  the  blood-accusation,  410. 

Bamberger,  Prof.  G.,  paper  on  Training  Schools,  l>>4-M:!S. 

Berlvowitz,  Eabbi  Henry,  D.D.,  paper  on  what  organized  forces  can  do  for 
Judaism,  353-357;  on  the  voice  of  the  mother  of  religions  on  the  social 
question,  367-372.  , 

Bible.  Its  authority  among  Jews  and  Christians,  58.  Its  influence  on 
mankind,  42  ff,  397  fi'.  Keligion  made  the  B.  390.  Tlie  B.  of  the 
Church  Universal,  ib.  The  B.  (Old  and  New  Testaments)  written  by 
Jews,  39G.     The  B.  as  a  classic  of  the  soul,  a  iiand-book  of  ethics,  ib. 

Biblical  Criticism.  The  attitude  of  Reformed  Judaism  to  B.  C.  29  f.  The 
share  of  Jewish  scholars,  184  fF,  195. 

Blood-accusation,  the  Archbishop  of  Zante  on  the.  410. 

Character  the  key-note  of  the  Gospel  in  the  Church  Universal,  388. 
Christianity.     Its  attitude  toward  the  Bible,  58.     ■Messianic  elements,  87. 
.  Relation  of  C.  to  Judaism,  114  ff.     Rise  of  C.  17()  fl".     .Jewish  converts 

to  C.  191  f.     The  attitude  of  the  modern  Jew  toward  the  founders  of 

C.  303.     The  debt  of  C.  to  Judaism,  395  f.  411  f. 
Church.     Its  relation  to  the  Synagogue,  H4  f.     The  Early  Ciuirch.   121   f. 

Mission  of  Church  compared  with  that  of  tin-  Synagogue.  122  f. 
Church  Universal,  126,  386  ff. 
Civilization,  Jewisli  contril)utions  to,  .391-401. 

Deutsch,  Gotthard,  Ph.D.,  paper  on  the  share  of  the  Jewish  people  in  the 

culture  of  the  various  ages,  17.5-192. 
Dogmas  in  "-eneral,  1  ;  in  Judaism,  2,  24  f,  oX. 

Eldridge,  S.  L.,  paper  on  the  union  of  Young  Israel,  348-352. 

Essenes,  115  ff. 

Ethics  of  Judaism,  99-106;  of  the  Talmud,  107-113;  the  ethical  teachin^-^ 

of  Synagogue  and  Church,  114-126;  universal  ethics  of  Prof.  Steinthai. 

127-146. 

Felsenthal,  Dr.  B.,  paper  on  the  Sabbath  in  Judaism,  ;)6-41  ;  on  the  instruc- 
tion of  post-Biblical  history  in  the  Sabbath  Schools,  319-.326. 

Frank,  Henrv  L.,  paper  on  Relief  Societies,  362  f. 

(415) 


416  INDEX. 

Harris,  Maurice  H.,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  paper  on  reverence  and  rationalism,  147- 

158. 
Hecht,  Dr.  S.,  paper  on  a  Sabbath  School  Union,  :j13-318. 
Hirscli,  Dr.  Emil  G.,  paper  on  elements  of  universal  religion,  386-390. 
History,  Judaism  the  soul  of  Jewish,  71  ;  historians  of  Jews  and  Judaism, 

204-22!) ;  the  instruction  of  Jewish  history  in  Sabbath  Schools,  319- 

326. 

Immortality,  the  doctrine  of,  in  Judaism,  49-55. 
Ireland,  Archbishoj)  John,  on  Anti-Semitism,  411-413. 

Jews,  their  share  in  the  culture  of  various  ages,  175-192;  their  contribu- 
.  tions  to  the  preservation  of  the  sciences,  193-203;  historians  of  the 
Jews,  204-229;  position  of  woman  among  them,  241-254;  popular 
errors  about  the  Jews,  285-294. 

Jud^iism,  theology  of,  1-25;  modern  Jud.  26-34  (orthodox  Jud.  230-240); 
the  Saljbath  in  J.  36-41  ;  doctrine  of  immortality  in  J.  49-55:  J.  a  re- 
ligion or  a  race  ?  the  question  discussed,  68  ff  (positively  answered, 
268-284);  ethics  of  J.  99-106;  J.  and  the  modern  state,  257-267;  out- 
look of  J.  295-303;  what  has  J.  done  for  woman,  304-310;  what 
organized  forces  can  do  foV  J.  353-357 ;  J.  and  the  social  question,  367- 
372. 

Jesus,  his  true  character,  118  5";  the  attitude  of  the  modern  Jew  toward 
him,  30;5. 

Jewish  periodical  press,  402-409  ;  publication  society,  327-333. 

Kohler,  Dr.  K.,  paper  on  Synagogue  and  Church,  114-126;  on  human 
brotherh(jod  as  taught  by  the  religions  based  on  the  Bible,  164-171. 

Kohut,  Dr.  Alexander,  paper  on  what  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  have  wrought 
for  mankind,  42-48;  on  the  genius  of  the  Talmud,  373-385. 

Landsberg,  Dr.  Max.  paper  on  position  of  woman  among  the  Jews.  241- 

2.34. 
Lazarus,  Miss  Josephiiu',  jiaper  on  the  outlook  of  Judaism,  295-303. 
Lectures,  po{)uiar,  l>42-;i47. 
Levy,   Kabbi    Clifton    II.,    i)aper   on    universal    ethics   of    Prof.    Steinthal, 

127-14(i. 
Lyon,  Prof.  D.  A.,  paper  (ju  Jt'wish  contrihiitions  t(j  civilization,  391-401. 

Mielziner,  Dr.  M..  i.aiicron  Ethics  of  the  Talmud.  107-113. 
Mendes,  Rev.  Dr.  11.  Percira,  paper  on  ortliodoK  .ludaisni.  230-240. 
jMessianic  idea,  79-95. 
Mohammedanism,  168  f. 

Moses,  tlie  greatness  and  inliiiciue  of,  159-163. 

Moses,  Habbi  A.,  pa|)cr  on  .iudaism  a  religion  and  not  a  race.  268-284. 
Mo.ses,  Kabbi  I.  S.,  paper  on   the  function   of  prayer  according  U)  Jewish 
doctrines,  72-78. 


INDEX.  417 

New  testament,  Jewish  ideas  in  the,  176  ff. 

Organized  forces,  what  they  can  do  for  Judaism,  358-357. 
Orthodox  Judaism,  230-240. 

Personal  service,  339-341. 

Philipson,  Rahbi  David,  D.  D.,  paper  on  Judaism  and  the  modern  state, 

257-267. 
Pittsburgh  Conference,  59,  261.  • 

Prayer,  the  function  of,  according  to  Jewish  doctrines,  72-78. 
Press,  Jewish  periodical,  402-409. 
Publication  Society,  Jewish,  of  America,  327-333. 

Radin,  Dr.  A.,  paper  on  popular  lectures,  342-347. 
Rationalism,  reverence  and,  147-158. 
Refoi'med  Judaism,  its  history  and  doctrines,  26-34. 
Relief  societies,  362-363. 

Religions,  Judaism  and  the  science  of  comparative,  56-71 ;  human  brother- 
hood as  taught  by  the  r.  based  on  the  Bible,  1(54-171. 

Sabbath  in  Judaism,  36-41. 

.Sabbath-schools,  instruction  of  history  in,  319-326;  a  S.  S.  union,  313-318. 

Sale,  Dr.  Samuel,  paper 'on  contribution  of  the  Jews  to  the  preservation  of 

the  sciences,  193-203. 
Schreiber,  Rabbi  E.,  paper  on  the  historians  of  the  Jews,  204-229. 
Schwab,  Dr.  I.,  paper  on  the  Messianic  idea,  79-95. 
Scriptures,  what  the  Hebrew  S.  have  wrought  for  mankind,  42-48. 
Silverman,  Rabbi  Joseph,  D.D.,  paper  on  popular  errors  about  the  Jews, 

285-294. 
Social  question,  the  voice  of  the  mother  of  religions  on  the,  367-372. 
Social  settlement,  358-361. 
State,  Judaism  and  the  modern,  257-267. 
Steinthal,  Prof.,  his  universal  ethics,  127-146. 
Stolz,  Rabbi  Joseph,  paper  on  the  doctrine   of  immortality  in   Judaism, 

49-55. 
Synagogue  and  Church,  114-126. 
Szold,  Miss  Henrietta,  paper  on  what  has  Judaism  done  for  woman,  304- 

310 ,  on  the  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America,  327-333. 

Talmud,  ethics  of  the,  107-113;  genius  of  the,  373-385. 
Theology  of  Judaism,  1-25. 
Training  Schools,  334-338. 

Universal  ethics,  127-146;  religion,  386-390. 

Wise,  Dr.  Isaac  M.,  paper  on  the  theology  of  Judaism,  1-25;  on  the  ethics 


418  INDEX. 

of   Judaism,  99-100;    on  the  Jewish   Periodical   Press,   402—109;    bis 
"History  of  the  Jewish  Commonwealth,"  227  f. 
Woman,  position  of,  among  the  Jews,  241-254;  what  has  Judaism  done  for 
w.  304-310. 

Young  Israel,  Union  of,  .348-352. 

Zante,  Archbishop  of,  on  the  blood-accusation,  410. 
Zeublin,  Prof.  Charles,  paper  on  .Social  Settlements,  358-361. 


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